
QassJS^^^ii. 



Book 



iqo3o » ^ 



PRESENTED Bi 



Optimism and Pessimism 



in the 



Old and New Testaments 



A DISSERTATION 

Presented to the Board of University Studies of the 

Johns Hopkins University for the Degree 

of Doctor of Philosophy, 1900 



by 
Adolf Guttmacher 



BALTIMORE, MD. 
1903 






COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY ADOLF GUTTMACHER 



iU© university, 



THE FRIEDENWALD COMPANY 
BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A. 



'I 



DEDICATED 

TO 

THE MEMOKY 

OF 
MY PABENTS 



PREFACE 



The subject of this investigation is too broad and too 
complex to receive exhaustive treatment within the 
pages of one volume. Yet, I may hope, to have contrib- 
uted something toward a better knowledge of the phil- 
osophy of life of the Old and New Testaments. The 
many problems involved in the investigation have been 
discussed in an impartial philosophical spirit, uninflu- 
enced by theological bias. 

Due credit has been given in footnotes to all whose 
researches have been helpful to me. I welcome this 
opportunity to express my best thanks to my honored 
teacher, Prof. Paul Haupt, for the assistance given me 
in the pursuit of my work. My thanks are also due to 
my esteemed friend, Eabbi Clifton H. Levy, who has 
kindly looked through the sheets of the entire work. 

Adolf Gctttmachee. 

Baltimore, Md., November, li)Oi. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 13 

Chapter I. 
View of the World — Persia, Greece, India 21 

Chapter II. 
View of the World in the Old Testament 27 

Chapter III. 
Origin and View of Evil in the Old Testament 33 

Chapter IV, 
View of Life in the Old Testament 57 

Chapter V. 
Reward and Punishment in the Old Testament 91 

Chapter VI. 
Messianism in the Old Testament 115 

Chapter VII. 
Resurrection in the Old Testament 151 

Chapter VIII. 
The Talmud 167 

Chapter IX. 
Christianity, Buddhism and Essenism 181 

Chapter X. 
The Kingdom of God and the Messiah 191 

Chapter XI. 
Pauline Christianity 205 



10 Contents 

Chapter XII. 
View of the World and of Life in the New Testament 213 

Chapter XIIL 
Sin, Atonement, Satan, in the New Testament 331 

Chapter XIV. 

Conclusion 241 

Excursus I. Eden 243 

Excursus II. Ecclesiastes 247 



ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS 



A. R. V American Revised Version of the Bible. 

D Deuteronomy (original document). 

Dt Additions to Deuteronomy. 

E Elohistic document. 

H Law of Holiness. 

Int. J. of Ethics. . . .International Journal of Ethics. 

J Jahvistic document. 

J. A. O. S Journal of the American Oriental Society. 

J, Q. R Jewish Quarterly Review. 

K. A, T Die Keilinschrif ten und das Alte Testament 

(Schrader). 
Kaiitzsch's A. T . . . .Die Heilige Schrift des Alten Testaments. 

Ed. by E. Kautzsch. 
Kautzsch's A. u. P..Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des 

Alten Testaments. Ed. by E. Kautzsch. 

LXX Septuagint. 

M Massoretic Text. 

N. T New Testament. 

O. T Old Testament. 

P. B The Sacred Books of the Old Testament. 

Ed. by Paul Haupt. 

R. S Revue Semitique. 

R. V Revised Version of the English Bible. 

Z. A. T Zeitschrift fiir die alttestamentliche Wissen- 

schaft. 
Z. D. M. G Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenlandischen 

Gesellschaft. 



INTRODUCTION 



The terms Optimism and Pessimism are of compara- 
tively recent date. Optimism became corrent in the 
first part of the eighteenth century to designate the doc- 
trine of the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von 
Leibnitz ( 1646-1 T 16), that this is the best possible 
world-* Pessimism as a designation for a system of 
philosophy originated with Arthur Schopenhauer (1788- 
1860), who c-ontends that this is the worst of aU pos- 
sible worlds/ A similar system of Pessimism was later 
developed by Eduard von Hartmaim (1842 — ). The 
fact that every human being desires to be happy, but 
does not find happiness, furnishes him the basis for his 

* Leibnitz endeavors to prove in the Theodieee, published 
in 1710, that our world, among all possible worlds, is the 
best, and that physical and moral evil are the consequences 
of man's limitation and imperfection, while, at the same 
time, evil is considered as a means for ultimate good. Here 
Optimism reaches its philosophic culmination. Wickedness 
is thus tolerated as a condition, sine qua non, in a world 
which but for it would not possess magnanimity and a host 
of other virtues. See also M. Kayserling. Moses ^lendels- 
sohn, Leipzig, 1888, p. 464. 

- Schopenhauer calls the arguments Leibnitz advances, to 
show that this is the best of all possible worlds, sophistical. 
Instead of being the best of all possible worlds, Schopen- 
hauer contends that it is the worst of all possible worlds 
(Schopenhauer: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, Gries- 
bach ed.. vol. II. p. 687). 



14 Introduction 

philosophical system of Pessimism/ Hartmann calls 
Kant the father of modern Pessimism. To his fortieth 
year Kant was an optimist, a follower of the Leibnitz- 
Wolf school, later he became a pessimist.* 

But long ere the terms Optimism and Pessimism were 
coined, Optimism and Pessimism existed as veins of feel- 
ing and of belief. These may readily be traced through 
the poetry and the religion of all peoples that had a 
literature. Pessimism is as old as mankind. It 
abounds in the religious speculations of Buddha/ and 
long before him is met with in the cuneiform inscrip- 
tions.^ 

The purpose of this dissertation is to point out the 
optimistic and pessimistic thoughts and tendencies in 
the Old and New Testaments. In doing so, we strenu- 
ously avoid following the little currents that spring 
from the subjective or personal experience of this or that 

^Hartmann: Das Religiose Bewusstsein der Menschheit, 
Leipzig, 1888, p. 27. 

*Cf. Hartmann: Zur Gesch. und Begriindung des Pessimis- 
mus, 2d ed., Lpzg., 1891, pp. 64 ff. Cf. Goeitein: Der Optim- 
ismus und Pessimismus, Berlin, 1890, p. V, note 2. Also, 
Kant's essay in " Berliner Monatsschrift " (1781), " Dber das 
Misslingen aller philosophischen Versuche in der Theo- 
dicee." 

° Buddha lived in the sixth century B. C. Buddhism 
teaches that to live on earth is weariness, and that there is 
no bliss beyond. Cf. Hopkins: The Religions of India, 
Boston, 1895, p. 316. 

•'Cf. Haupt: The Book of Ecclesiastes in Oriental Studies, 
Boston, 1894, pp. 249-250; comp. Notes 20 and 21, p. 267. 



Inteoduotion 1 5 

individual; for no individual, however great, mirrors 
in himself all the aspirations and activities of his time. 
We have walked up and down the shores of lifers broad 
river in search of the longings and aspirations, the joys 
and sorrows, the virtues and vices, of the men and 
women who lived during the time covered by the term 
"biblical." 

The terms Optimism and Pessimism we use in the 
broad sense of philosophy to denote two specific theories 
of life. Optimism affirms existence as essentially good 
and conducive to happiness. In brief, existence is pre- 
ferable to non-existence. Xor could it be otherwise, the 
optimist asserts in a world called into being by a Cre- 
ator of infinite goodness and wisdom. Pessimism affirms 
that existence when summed up, has an enormous sur- 
plus of pain over pleasure, and that real good can only 
be had by abnegation and self-sacrifice. It thus con- 
cludes, that non-existence is better than existence. Op- 
timism denies that there is anything evil, if the Uni- 
verse be considered as a whole, but not that there are 
many particular evils in the world. Pessimism denies 
that there is anything really good in relation to the 
Universe as a whole, but not that there are some things 
good as regards the particular interests of particular 
beings. The main distinction between Optimism and 
Pessimism is, that while the former looks upon evil as 
temporary and alterable, the latter regards it as final 
and unalterable. 



16 Introduction" 

Schopenhauer states/ that the characteristics of Juda- 
ism are Eealism and Optimism, views of the world that 
furnish the main elements for a Theistic belief. If 
there be an infinite God possessed of infinite power, it 
would seem to follow that He would originate the best 
possible system. Then, a true Theism cannot, possibly, 
give rise to a belief that existence is essentially evil. 

The optimistic theory finds its origin in the belief in 
a Moral Governor.*" But for the Theist who has freed 
the idea of God of its naturalism, and who has come to 
identify it with the ideals of goodness, and wisdom, and 
justice, there arises the necessity of a Theodicy — '' a 
justification of the ways of Providence.'^ For Theism 
asserts that the existence of the world is an intended 
consequence of God's goodness and omniscience, and sees 
itself, therefore, driven in the presence of evil to the 
necessity of attempting a Theodicy.^ Whether men be 

^Cf. Schopenhauer: Parerga and Paralipomena, Griesbach 
ed., vol. II, p. 397. 

^ All theories of divine beings may, indeed, be said to have 
an optimistic bearing in so far as these beings are con- 
ceived as accessible to man and susceptible of being influ- 
enced by his prayers. Yet the conception of gods delight- 
ing in evil, and of a nature to awaken terror seems rather 
to be connected with those impulses which give rise to the 
cruder forms of Pessimism. On the other hand, the doctrine 
that the world is the work of a wise and just Being obvi- 
ously leads up to an optimistic solution of the question. Cf . 
Sully: Pessimism, N. Y., 1891, p. 36. 

*Cf. Hartmann: Philosophy of the Unconscious, London, 
1884, vol. II, p. 274; also, James: The Varieties of Rel. Ex- 
perience, London, 1902, p. 131. 



IlTTRODUCfTION 17 

votaries of theistic or non-theistic beliefs, they com- 
monly do not look with indifference on pain or poverty. 
They will be far from thinking that poverty, loss of 
children, sickness and death, are no evils, and that a 
bounteous harvest, hope of posterity, and good health 
are not things to be desired. It is but human to look 
upon the one as a curse, and upon the other as a blessing. 
Man may be indifferent to search for the source whence 
spring the blessings that come to him, but he will burn 
with desire to ascertain the cause of his sorrows and 
misfortunes. Life teaches him that evil is due to some 
external cause, and he comes to look upon it as a power 
superior to himself. The next step is to appease by sac- 
rifice and prayer, fasting and voluntary suffering, the 
wrath and displeasure of that superior power, that he 
may ward off further and greater evil. Thus every gen- 
eration asks anew : " What is the origin of evil ? ^' " How 
can it be conquered ? ^' These queries, or rather the 
attempts to find a satisfactory answer to them, led to 
the formation of the different religious creeds and phil- 
osophical systems." For the central problem which lies 
at the root of all religion is concerned with the origin of 
evil and the deliverance from it. We thirst for life, 
not only for life in general, but for individual life and 
for the preservation of our personal existence, its con- 
tinuance and its welfare. Yet does not life involve us 
in labors, struggles, siclmess, pain and misery? The 

^" Cf . Hartmann : D. rel. Bewusstsein d. Menschheit, Lpzg., 

1888, p. 27. 
2 



18 Introduction 

very contents of life seems to be made up of evils, as a 
means of escape from wliicli religion was songlit,"" The 
manner in vrhich the problem of evil is solved deter- 
mines the optimistic and pessimistic theories of life. 

Schopenhauer states "' that on the whole the spirit of 
the Old Testament is optimistic, and that of the Xew 
Testament pessimistic — i. e. of course, so far as this life 
is concerned. The Old Testament religion is favorable 
to an optimistic ^iew of life, for besides supplying a uni- 
versal Optimism in relation to the moral order of the 
world by its nndaimted faith in the final victory of good 
over evil, it teaches a kind of national Optimism with 
respect to the hedonistic value of life in the idea that 
the Creator is controlling all things for the special 
benefit of His chosen people; it is a shout of joy at God's 
glorious world, joy at His righteous government of 
men^s affairs, at the certain realization of His purposes 
in His Kingdom. The Xew Testament so far as this 
life is concerned leans strongly towards Pessimism," 

^^ " Alle Religion beruht auf dem Gefiihl des Erlosungs- 
bediirfniss, auf dem Verlangen nach Erlosung, nicM nur 
von der Slinde, sondern auch von dem Ubel." Cf. Hart- 
mann: Zur Gescb. u. Begriindung d. Pessimismus, Lpzg., 
1891, pp. 23 ff. 

'- Sammtlicbe Werke (Frauenstadt ed.), vol. Ill, p. 713; 
also, Haupt in Oriental Studies, Boston, 1894, p. 265, note 15; 
Bacon's Essays, London, 1877, p. 17. 

" If pessimistic be tbe conviction that life on eartb is not 
worth living, this view is shared by the greatest of earth's 
religions. If Pessimism be the view that all beauty ends 
with life, and that beyond there is nothing for which it is 



IXTRODUCTTOX 19 

it speculates about the future and the grave and depre- 
ciates this life and its affairs. Thus Friedricli Paulsen, 
speaking of Christianity and Buddhism, states:" "In 
their origin both religions are religions of salvation. 
They promise not happiness, but deliverance from evil, 
not by the means of civilization, and by the satisfaction 
of all needs, but by deliverance from desire, by deliver- 
ance from the will to live, from the pursuit of worldly 
goods, wealth, honor and lust. Their judgment on the 
pleasure-value of life is unanimous — life is suffering; 
sin and misery form the contents of life of the natural 
man. In keeping with Christian views, our terrestrial 
life is teleologically justified by the fact that it bears 
relation to a higher life, to the life beyond the grave. It 
has meaning and import, not as an end in itself, but as 
a period of preparation and probation for life eternal." 
The passages of the Old and Xew Testaments bearing 
upon Optimism and Pessimism wiU be chronologically 
arranged according to the teachings of modem biblical 
criticism. For research has abundantly proven that the 
Books of Scriptures are not chronologically arranged, 
and that some of the Books themselves are of composite 
structure. 

worth while to live, then India has no parallel to this 
Homeric belief. If, however, Pessimism mean that to have 
done with existence on earth is the best that can happen to 
a man, but that there is bliss beyond, then this is the opinion 
of Brahmanism, Jainism, and Christianity." Cf. Hopkins: 
The Religions of India, Boston, 1895, p. 316. 

"Paulsen: Introd. to Philosophy, X. Y., 1895, p. 177. 



CHAPTER I 

View of the World — Persia, Geeece, Ixdia 

In nature-religions the beneficial operations of nature 
are ascribed to heterogeneous causes. The evil malevo- 
lent gods and spirits are opposed to those that are good 
and beneficent. Pfleiderer states^ that this dualism is 
found in some form in all nature-religions. In the cult 
of Osiris, Adonis, Melkarth, etc., the two hostile princi- 
I^les stand side by side on such a footing of equality, 
that in the circle of the year alternately the one and the 
other conquers, without a final victory being reached. 
Furthermore, nature-religions look upon the world as 
void of history and design, which view stamps them as 
pessimistic. The struggle for existence, due to the 
steriHty of the soil and to excessive and enervating heat, 
is reflected among the Persians in their dualistic belief 
of spirits, contrasted as light and darkness, beneficial 
and prejudicial — Ahriman and Ormuzd." The softer 
climate of Judaea and the fruitfulness of the soil may, 

^ Genetisch-spekulative Religionspliil., Berl., 1884, pp. 
355 ff; also, Tiele: Gesch. d. Rel. im. Altertum, Gotha, 1898, 
vol. II, pp. 153 ff; Jastrow, Jr.: The Study of Rel., Lon- 
don, 1901, p. 83. 

- These names are corruptions of earlier names found in 
Avesta, Ahura-Mazda and Angra or Anra-Mainytl ; cf. also 
Art " Angra-Mainyus " in J. A. O. S. 5:380; 13:187; also 
Jackson: Zoroaster, N. Y., 1899, p. 171, and Art. "Avesta" 
in Am. Encycl; Tiele: Gesch. d. Rel. im Altertum, vol. II, 
pp. 128 ff; Bollinger: Heident. u. Judent., Regensburg, 
1857, pp. 357 ff; 382. 



22 View of the World 

possibly, help to explain the joy and the happiness the 
ancient Hebrews found in life. Greek thought, was, 
on the whole, conducive to Optimism rather than to 
Pessimism.' The polytheism of the G-reeks was char- 
acterized by joy and cheer. There enters into it how- 
ever, a purely pessimistic element — the f atum, /-/oT/?a. 
The idea of an all-embracing principle of fate by which 
the gods, as well as men, were bound, makes for Pessi- 
mism, since all limitation of will is a diminution of 
good which the will can reach. This gloomy view is 
voiced in G-reek tragedy ."* The early Greeks are contin- 
ually held up to us in literary works as models of native 
youthful Optimism, or as Prof. James calls it, "the 
healthy-minded joyousness." ^ But even in Homer 

^Cf. Nicklin: "The Greek View of Life," in Int. J. of 
Ethics, Jan., 1901. 

*Theognis, 425-428: "Best of all for all things upon 
earth is it not to be born nor to behold the splendors of 
the sun; next best to traverse as soon as possible the gates 
of Hades." Comp. the almost identical passage in CEdipus 
in Colonus, 1225: " Not to have been born at all is superior 
to every view of that question; the next best thing for him 
who has seen the light of day is to return whence he came." 
Similarly in Euripidis Hippol, 189: "The whole life of 
man is full of grief, nor is there any rest from toil and 
moil." The Anthology of Theognis is full of pessimistic 
utterances that remind one of Job and Ecclesiastes: 
"Naked came I upon the earth, naked I go below the 
ground — why then do I vainly toil when I see the end 
naked before me?" "Being naught I came to life: once 
more shall I be what I was." " Nothing and Nothingness 
is the whole race of mortals." 

•* James: The Varieties of Religious Experience, London, 
1892, p. 142. 



Persia, Greece, India 23 

the reflective passages are cheerless/* and the moment 
the Greeks grew systematically pensive and thought of 
ultimates, they became immitigated pessimists.^ This 
transition from Optimism to Pessimism is most instruc- 
tive. Greek polytheism, that seemed to have trans- 
formed the world into a veritable Paradise, ends in the 
religious-philosophical speculations of Xeo-Platonism 
which regards the same world as an abode of dismal 
darkness and error, and life on earth as a time of pro- 
bation.^ But Greek Pessimism differs from the oriental 
and modern variety. The Greeks had not made the dis- 
covery that the pathetic mood may be idealized, and fig- 
ure as a higher form of sensibility. Their spirit was 
still too essentially masculine for Pessimism to be elab- 
orated or lengthily dwelt on in their literature.^* 

Among the Aryans of India we find a remarkable 
groundwork for Pessimism. Their philosophy of de- 
spair makes life itself a sin, and existence a grave mis- 
take, if not a fatality. " The sense that life is a dream, 
or a burden," says Max Midler, " is a notion which Bud- 

''a Iliad, XVII, 446: " Nothing then is more wretched any- 
where than man of all that breathes and creeps upon this 
earth." 

^For a characteristic utterance of Greek Pessimism 
comp. passage in Sokrates' Apology where Plato puts in the 
mouth of the wisest of men, " that death even if it should 
rob us of all consciousness would still be a wonderful gain, 
inasmuch as deep dreamless sleep is by far to be preferred 
to every-day, even of the happiest life." Jowett's transl. 
of the Dialogues of Plato, N. Y., 1887, pp. 305 ff. 

■^Cf. Horowitz: Untersuchungen iiber Philon's and Pla- 
ten's Lehre von der Weltschopfung, Marburg, 1900. 

^a James: The Varieties of Rel. Experiences, p. 142. 



24 View of the Woeld 

dhism shares with every Hindoo philosophy/^ ^ So 
Schopenhauer : ' '' The fundamental characteristics of 
Brahmanism and Buddhism are Idealism and Pessi- 
mism, which look upon life as the result of our sins, 
and upon the existence of the world as in the nature of 
a dream." Buddhism is pessimistic Pantheism, it de- 
nies existence not only of a Creator, but of an Absolute 
Being." There is no reality anywhere, neither in the 
past nor in the future. Life is suffering — this is the 
burden of the teachings of Buddha." For life is filled 
with a desire of the soul for goods that are not, and 
which by their very transitoriness prepare a constant 
illusion. Hence, man must make himself free from all 
desire. He must endeavor to become wishless and hope- 
less that he may find peace and rest." " True wisdom,^^ 
says Max Miiller, ^*^ consists in a perception of the 
nothingness of all things, and in a desire to become 
nothing, and to be blown out to enter into IN'irvana, 

^ Chips from a German Workshop, London, 1868, vol. I, 
p. 227. 

^Cf. Saunders: Essays of Schopenhauer, London, 1895, 
p. 274. 

"Cf. Schopenhauer (vol. II, p. 331): " Der Buddhismus 
legt uns eine Welt dar, ohne einen moralischen Regierer, 
Lenker, oder Schopfer." 

"Cf. Oldenberg: Buddha, Berl., 1897, p. 241; also, Ben- 
der: D. Wesen d. Rel., Bonn, 1886, p. 274. 

"Buddha believed that man's evil desire, and not his 
material existence, was the root of evil. As a remedy he 
proposes the radical extinction of all desire. Cf. Cams: 
Buddhism and its recent Christian Critics, Chicago, 1899, 
p. 24; Happel: Die rel. u. philos. Anschauungen der Inder, 
Giessen, 1902; Dilger: D. Erlosung d. Menschen, Basel, 
1902. 



Persia, Geeece, Ixdia 25 

i. e. extinction." " When Nirvana is reached, every- 
thing that constitutes our separate individuality, feeling, 
thought, the very consciousness of personal existence is 
annihilated, the oil that fed the lamp of life is drained 
off, and the flame goes out of itself." 

"Chips from a German Workshop, vol. I, p. 231; also, 
Rhys-Davis: "The Buddhistic doctrine of Nirvana" in 
Contemporary Review, Jan., 1877; Oldenberg: Buddha, p. 
237; J.A. O. S., 1:292. 

"Cams in opposition to Oldenberg asserts that Nirvana 
does not mean annihilation, but rather deliverance from 
evil. Cf. Buddhism and its recent Christian Critics, p. 75; 
James: The Varieties of Religious Experience, London, 
1902, p. 165. 



CHAPTEE n 

View of the Woeld ix the Old Testaimext 

The creation of the Universe forms the beginniiig of 
the early records of all great civilizations/ For creation 
is the presupposition of all subsequent history and, at 
the same time, the first act of revelation on the part of a 
creator. Thus, among the Hebrews, the early chapters 
of their sacred records reveal their conception of creation 
and creator. 

It is, generally, conceded that in Genesis are two ac- 
counts of creation imperfectly fused together." Though 
they differ in style and in the order of creation, God is 
the Creator in both.' God is placed outside of the world, 
but in sole and direct control of all that occurs.'* He 
wills that something should be, and it is. 

The Universe is not self-existent, as some cosmo- 
gonies teach, not inherently evil, nor antagonistic to 
God and man, but it has come into being at the will of 
a Divine Creator. ^* He does not lose Himself in what 

'Cf. White: A Hist, of Warfare of Science and Theol., 
N. Y., 1896, vol. I, pp. 1-4. 

= Gen. 1:1 — 2:4a (first account) known as priestly, also 
the Elohistic account, c. 500 B. C. Gen. 2:4b— 3:24 (second 
account) known as prophetic. Judaic or Jahvistic account, 
c. 850 B. C. Cf. Kaulen: " Der Biblische Schopfungsbericht. 
Gen. 1:1—2:3," Freiburg, 1902. 

^ Cf. Driver: Introd. to 0. T., 6th ed., p. 8; also, Spurrell: 
Notes on the text of Gen., Oxford, 1896, Introd.: Hol- 
zinger: Gen. (Marti), Freiburg, 1898, pp. 37 ff; Gunkel: 
Schopfung u. Chaos, Gott., 1895, p. 5. 

^Cf. Jastrow, Jr.: The Study of Rel., London, 1901, 
p. 234. 



28 View of the World 

is created; nor does He merely passively suffer things 
to go forth from Him; but He actively brings them 
forth, and keeps Himself independent of them in the 
sameness of His eternal Godhead. He has nothing in 
antithesis to Himself, nothing outside of Himself which 
He could not, or only gradually could, overcome; but 
everything outside of Him stands open to His free dis- 
posal/^ * That God is the Creator, independent of all 
that He created, is a conception deeply rooted in the 
consciousness of the ancient Hebrews, and explains the 
optimistic view of the world that prevails in the Old 
Testament. But this Creator not only is independent 
of all creation, he has created everything good, i. e. in 
the perfection which corresponds to His o^vn goodness. 
This is, especially, clear from the Priestly account of 
creation.'* After each and every act of creation God 
proclaims the work 3"fD"^3 "to be good.^^ After the 
completion of creation God seems to be still more pleased 
with what He had wrought, for we find iN'p 31t0"n3n."i 
" behold, it was very good." ^ Judaism was the first 
religion to recognize that this world " is very good '^ — 
the work of One Almighty Beneficent God. Thus we 
read in Isaiah : ^ 

"For thus says JHVH, the Creator of the heavens, — He is 
the true God; 
The Former and Maker of the earth, — He established it. 
Not a waste did He create it, to be inhabited He formed 
it." (P. B.) 

*Cf. Dillmann: Gen., Edinb., 1897, vol. I, p. 43. 

' Cf . Jastrow, Jr. : " The Hebr. and Babyl. account of Cre- 
ation," J. Q. R., July, 1901. 

•^Cf. Gunkel: Schopfung u. Chaos, p. 12. 

M5:18 (546 B. C); comp. Jer. 10:12 (not genuine); cf. 
CornilFs ed. of Heb. text in P. B. 



IN" THE Old Testament 29 

Similarly, in the Psalms : 
" By the words of JHVH were the heavens made, 

And all their host by the breath of his mouth." ^ (P. B.) 
"For He spoke, and it was! 

He commanded, and it stood forth! "^ (P. B.) 

Again and again do the Psalmists extol the untold 
beanties of nature, and the bounties she so lavishly be- 
stows upon man : 
" Thou causest springs to flow in the valleys. 

Between mountains they glide away; 

They give drink to every beast of the field. 

Wild asses thereat quench their thirst; 

Birds of the air build their nests on the banks. 

And warble forth songs from the branches. 

From Thine upper stories of clouds, Thou givest drink 
to the mountains, 

And the earth is sated with the fruit of Thy works. 

Thou causest grass to grow for cattle. 

And herbs for the service of man. 

So that bread may come forth from the earth." ^° (P. B.) 

ISTature not only provides man with those things neces- 
sary to sustain his life, but she furnishes him with luxu- 
ries that cheer the heart and lighten the spirit : 
" And wine to cheer man's heart. 

Oil to make his skin to shine"" (P. B.) 

In the eighth Psalm,"^ which " is a lyric echo of the 
tradition committed to "\ATiting in the Elohistic account 
of creation," '' we read : 

«Ps. 33:6 (480 B. C.) 
»Ps. 33:9. 
^°Ps. 104:10-14. 
"Ps. 104:15. 

"a Older than Job 7:17, later than Gen. I; cf. Wellhausen's 
crit. notes on Ps. 8 in P. B. (Engl, transl.) 
^-Cf. Delitzsch: Genesis, Edinb., 1888, vol. I, p. 65. 



30 View of the World 

"When I see Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, 
The moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, 
What is man that Thou takest thought of him, 
And a son of man that Thou heedest him." " (P. B.) 

The Optimism which roots in the conception that God 
is the Creator is deepened by the belief that He, the 
Creator, rules over that which He has called into ex- 
istence, and it is significant that He is always spoken 
of as a " Eighteous Judge." 
" JHVH has assumed the sovereignty, let the earth rejoice. 

Let the multitude of countries be glad! 

Clouds and darkness are round about Him, 

Righteousness and justice are the foundations of His 
throne." " 
" For JHVH, the Host High, is to be feared, 

A great King over all the earth." 
" For King of the whole world is God." 
" God has begun His reign over the heathen. 

He has taken His seat on His holy throne." ^^ (P. B.) 
" He loves righteousness and justice; 

Of the goodness of JHVH the earth is full." " (P. B.) 

Long before Leibnitz did the Talmudic doctors assert 
that this is the best possible world. For we read in 
Midrash Eabboth " that Eabbi Abahu of Csesarea (about 
300 C. E.) said : " " How do we loiow, that God several 

^^Ps. 8: 3, 4. 

"Ps. 97:1,2 (c. 350 B. C.) 

"Ps. 47:2, 7a, 8 (c. 350 B. C.) 

^«Ps. 33:5 (c. 480 B. C); comp. Zeph. 3:5; Micah 7:9; 
Amos 5:24; Hosea 14:9; Jer. 11:20; Isa. 3:14, 15; Ps. 96: 
10-13; 103:6; Dan. 9:14, 16; Eccl. 3:17; 8:12. 

" Midrash Rabboth is a collection of Midrashim on the 
Pentateuch and the five Megilloth. Bereshith Rabba was 
compiled during the sixth Christian century. Cf. Karpeles: 
Gesch. d. jud. Lit., Berl., 1886, vol. I, p. 335. 

^^ Bereshith Rabba, chapt. 9. 



IN THE Old Testament 31 

times created worlds and then destroyed them until He 
created these worlds^ for He said, these are good, and 
the others are not/' In another place we read: 
" All that God has wrought was for the good." ^* 

'» Talm. Berachoth 60b. 1^2V 2i:h X^Dm I^IVI Sd 



CHAPTER III 

Origin and Yiew of Evil ix the Old Testament 

The Biblical accounts of creation imply that G-od cre- 
ated everything out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo)/ The 
opening sentence of the Priestly account of creation: 
"In the beginning Grod created the heavens and the 
earth/^ ' expresses the negation of primary matter (Ur- 
stoff ) . This view is never contradicted in the Old Tes- 
tament. During Post-biblical ages, too, it was the pre- 
vailing view." Those who diifered from it were under 
the influence of Greek speculation. Thus AristobuliLS 
(IGO B. C.), who was the chief exponent of the Jewish- 
Alexandrian school of pliilosophy, held that God formed 
the world out of material previously existing.^ This 
view is also met with in the Wisdom of Solomon * and in 

^]>i^D ^'> nsna (Creatio ex nihilo). 

» (Gen. 1:1) (P) yiiin nxT D^Dk^n ns DM^JK Kin n^*^5<ii 

Cf. also Isa. 44:24 (550-545 B. C.) : 

" Thus says JHVH, thy Redeemer, and He who formed thee 
from the womb: 
I am JHVH, who wrought everything, 
Who stretched forth the heayens, alone, who spread forth 
the earth — who was with me" (P. B.); also Ps. 
90:2; 33:5; Job 26:7. 
« Cf. Hamburger's Real Eneycl. " Schopfung aus Nichts," 
and " Religionsphilosophie." 

^Cf. Ueberweg: Hist of Phil., N. Y., 1896, vol. I, p. 223; 

Joel: Blicke in die Religionsgesch., Excursus I Aristobulus. 

*Cf. Wisdom of Sol. (150 B. C), "For Thine Almighty 

hand, that made the world of matter without form" (11: 

17a). 



34 Origin and View of Eyil 

the Jerusalem Talmiid.*^ Advocates of both theories 
are found among the Fathers of the Church." Heathen- 
dom had but the one theory, that matter existed before 
the world was created. To find an explanation for the 
mixed state of things which prevails, i. e. good and evil, 
solution was sought in Dualism, the doctrine that there 
are two independent divine beings or eternal principles, 
one good and the other evil : characteristic especially of 
Parsism and of various G-nostic systems. The Old Tes- 
tament in negating primary matter looks for evil not in 
matter, but in man to whom freedom has been vouch- 
safed. Evil, thus, becomes the result of the abuse of 
freedom, it is, as it were, concocted in the laboratory of 
the human heart. 

" Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compas- 
sion every man to his brother . . . and let none of 
you imagine evil against his brother in your heart." ® 

" Yet even now, says JHVH, turn to me with all your 
heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning: 
rend your heart, not your garments, and turn to JHVH, 
your God." ^ 

*aR. Jehuda b. Pasi (400 C. E.) teaches (77 Col. I): "At 
first the world was water in water, for it is written: And 
the spirit of God was brooding upon the waters." Cf. Joel. 
Blicke i. d. Religionsgesch., vol. I, pp. 162 ff ; cf. ibid.. 
Gnosis. Excursus II. 

= Cf. White: A Hist, of the Warfare of Science with The- 
ology, N. Y., 1896, vol. I, pp. 4ff; Ueberweg: A Hist, of 
Philosophy, N. Y., 1896, vol. I, pp. 274 ff. 

«Zech. 7:9,10 (520 B. C.) 

^ Joel 2:12, 13a (post-exilic). Kautzsch and Cornill place 
passage as late as 350 B. C. 



IS Ti¥iE Old Tesiameht 35 

" Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the 
issues of life." * 

In EcclesiasticTis (200 B. C.) a sharp distinction is 
drawn between moral and physieal eviL The former 
being due to man's free-will, the latter coming from 
God. Thns we read : 

" Say not, it is through the Lord that I have fallen. 
For thou ought not to do the things He hates." » 
" Say not. He has caused one to err: 

For He has no need of the sinful man.'* * 
" He Himself made man from the heginuins. 
And left him to his counseL" ^ 
Before man is life and death." ^ 

Concerning the sonrce of physical eyil vr^ zul : ' Pros- 
perity and adTersity, Mf e and death, poTerty and riches, 
come of the Lord,'' ^ either as a pimishment, or for the 
purpose of testing man's strength of character. 

"What is brought upon thee take cheerfully, and he 
patient when thou art changed to low estate. For gold is 
tried in the furnace, and acceptable men ui the fire of ad- 
TCTSity."** 

The Old Testament boldly grapples with the difficnlt 
problem of eTil by resting in absolute ideal faith npon 
the wisdom and goodne^ of JHYH, who created this 

» ProT. 4: 23. DTTI nWin MBD *3 ^ ^>D TD85^3D 
CL im Joe. Muller and Kautzsch's critical notes on the Heb. 
text of ProT. in P. B., where the Massoretic text ^30 is 
changed into 722. As to the age of the passage, I agree 
with those who place the first nine chpts. in the Greek age 
(c 250 B. C.) Cf. DriTer, Introd. sixth ed., p. 405. The 
pre-exUic Tiew is defended by Nowack: Die Spruche Salo 
mo's, Lpzg., 18S3, §5. 

•15:11. -15:12. "15:14. 

"15:17a. "11:14. ^2:4,5. 



36 Oeigix axd Yiew of Evil 

-^orld in ^sdom and goodness." Its trust is imcon- 
ditioned. though there be nothing whatsoever between 
evil and Diyine Omnipotence. The burden is placed 
upon the shoulders of every individual who has mis- 
used the freedom God has granted him. He, and he 
alone, is responsible for evil. If he has fallen, his own 
will has dragged him do^vn. 

In Pagan mythology, man was once an angel. He 
rebelled against the gods and henceforth was expelled 
from the heavenly abode.^' The cosmology- of Egypt 
makes the rebellion of the angels precede the creation 
of the Universe. The earth was to be a place to which 
the rebellious were exiled, who once on earth were sub- 

-^Cf. Philippson: Welibewegende Fragen, Lpzg., 1869, vol. 
I, p. 126. 

-^ The storv of the fallen angels in Enoch is built upon 
Gen. 6:2, 4 (J). The date of Enoch is uncertain, about 70 
B, C. In Enoch (chpts. 6-11) (cf. Beer's translation in 
Kautzsch's Apok. and Pseudepig.) we read: " It happened 
after the children of men had multiplied in those days, that 
fair and beautiful daughters were born to them. And the 
angels, the sons of the heavens, saw them and lusted after 
them, the children of men, and said unto each other, Come, 
let us choose wives among them, and beget children. And 
Semjaza, the first of them, said unto them: I fear, lest ye 
may not want to accomplish the deed, and then I alone 
shall have to suffer punishment. And each selected one 
for himself, and they began to go in unto them, and misled 
them, and taught them witchcraft and incantations, and 
informed them how to cut roots and different kinds of 
wood. But they became pregnant and brought forth mighty 
giants whose length was three thousand cubits, and these 
giants were iniquitous, and occasioned the flood. These 
evil angels taught men war and bloodshed and every wicked 
work, and were punished by being confined in the bowels 
of the earth till the great day of judgment." 



IN- THE Old Testament 37 

ject to pain and suffering like ordinary mortals. This 
belief was common to most Pagans. Socrates, who op- 
posed it, paid for his scepticism with his life." 

The pessimistic and fatalistic elements, characteristic 
of Paganism, may be traced to the belief that man is a 
fallen being, a prisoner on earth. Even the Talmud is 
not wholly free from that belief. We read there of a 
conflict in Pleaven, and of the banishment of souls into 
mortal bodies.'^ The names of two fallen angels (giants) 
are mentioned — Uzziel and Shamkhazai.^^^ Such vaga- 
ries, however, left no impress upon the development of 
Judaism. The monotheistic belief was too deeply im- 
bedded within the Jewish consciousness not to prove 
fatal to all such imaginings. Fatalism (excepting one 
passage in Jeremiah ^'^ and a few references in the genu- 
ine "^ portion of Ecclesiastes ^^) finds no echo within the 
Old Testament. The doctrine of free-will is enunciated 
in clear and unmistakable language and is in thorough 

"Cf. Jowett: The Dialogues of Plato, N. Y., 1887, vol. I 
(The Apology), pp. 316 ft. 
^^Targiim: Jer. to Gen. 6:4. 

^"a hiii^-m and ^xnp^ 

" (15:2. 597 B. C.) "And it shall be, when they say to 
thee, whither shall we go? then shalt thou tell them, thus 
says the Lord: such as are for death to death; and such as 
are for the famine, to famine, and such as are for cap- 
tivity, to captivity." 

'°Cf. Haupt: The Bk. of EccL, in Oriental Studies, pp. 
243 f. 
^^ (9:7) "Come, eat thy bread with joy. 

And drink thy wine with a merry heart; 
For God has long ago approved of (all) thy 
doings." 
Comp. 9:9; 8:14. Cf. also Haupt: The Bk. of Eccl. in Ori- 
ental Studies, p. 257. 



38 OEiGrN- AND View of Eyil 

keeping with the dignity and worth which the Old Tes- 
tament ascribes to human nature : 

" I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day : 
that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and 
the curse, and thou shalt choose life." ^ 

In the Tahnnd the doctrine of free-will is often re- 
ferred to. " He who wishes to purify himself is helped 
by Heaven towards his aim, while he who seeks to defile 
himself will find means of doing so." " 

As soon as evil cannot be longer explained, it becomes 
in the Old Testament punishment of God for sin. Thus 
Eliphaz asserts in the Book of Job that the innocent 
never perishes/* which implies that the guilty does per- 
ish. Sorrow remains what it is, but its sting is extracted 
in the reflection that it has a moral ground."^ Man's 
moral strength lies in his will, upon it depends his being 
great or weak. His whole character is built upon it. 
Free-will relieves the Creator, according to the Old Tes- 
tament, of the responsibilit}^ for evil. It is to be noted 
that among the efforts to explain God's responsibility 
for existing evil nowhere is it stated that it is a property 
of matter; that evil inheres in matter was the view of 
the Neo-Platonic school. 

It is as true of Eabbinical as of Old Testament the- 
ology that it is weak in the theories of the origin of sin. 

-Deut. 30:19 (Dt). 

=^ Talm. Sabbath 104a. X2 D^D'^n |D h pr^^DO "IHD^ Kl 

^M:7 comp. Deut. 30:17, 18 (Dt) ; also Isa. 55:7 (in LXX 
this sentence is omitted). 

^ In 0. T. physical evil is traced to moral evil, and moral 
evil has its cause in man's free-will, presupposed in Deut. 
30:15 ff (Dt). 



IN THE Old Testament 39 

The third chapter of Genesis simply relates a fact; at 
any rate, it stands by itself, and is nowhere referred to 
again in the Old Testament/^^ Though little thought is 
bestowed in the Old Testament upon the cause and 
origin of sin, it holds out the hope of conquest of sin by 
unremitting effort on the part of the sinner. 

Man endowed with reason and free-will is the archi- 
tect and arbiter of his own fate: 

" Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 
the blessing, if ye shall hearken unto the commandments 
of JHVH your God . . . and the curse, if ye shall not 
hearken . . . " ^^ 

"Wherefore does man murmur while he lives, a man on 
account of punishment for his sins? Let us search and try 
our ways, and turn again to JHVH." " 
" Train a child in the way he should go. 

And even when he is old he will not depart from it." ^' 

These passages indicate that man may by the exercise 
of his will rid himself of sin. 

The Talmudic doctors seem to be of the opinion that 
no man who can reason will sin : " ^o man sins unless 
his mind has been clouded." ^ Akabya (70 C. E.) said: 
"Eeflect upon three things and thou wilt not come 
within the power of sin: Know whence thou comest, 

"*a cf. Cheyne: The Book of Psalms, N. Y., 1895. Notes to 
Ps. 51; also Zunz: Gottesdienstliche Vortrage, Frankfurt 
a/M, 1892, second ed., p. 44; also Jastrow: The Study of 
Religion, London, 1901, p. 223; Giidemann: Das Juden- 
thum, Wien, 1902, p. 17. 

"«Deut. 11:26, 27 (D); comp. ibid., 30:15-19 (Dt). 

"Lam. 3:39, 40; comp. Ps. 18:26. 

*«Prov. 22:6. 

» niD2^ nn n djd: d'j5« xt^x nn^ii; nnir Dnx ps* (Babi, 

Sutta 3a.) 



40 Oeigen" and View of Evil 

and whither thou art going, and before whom thou wilt 
in future have to give account and reckoning/^ " 

The text of Genesis 4:7 (J" 650 B. C), frequently 
quoted to explain the attitude of the Old Testament in 
regard to free-will, is, by nigh unanimous opinion, con- 
sidered very doubtful. Dillmann thus holds that the text 
has been early corrupted, and later restored in the pres- 
ent unsatisfactory manner.^^ The Massoretic text is: 
^\Ssi Y^'y nx^n nnab n^ip^n i6 dx? m^ 2^p*r^-DN Ni'pn 

" If thou doest well, shall it not he lifted up? and if thou 
doest not well, sin coucheth at the door: and unto thee shall 
he its desire, but do thou rule over it" (A. R. V.) 

LXX:'' 

OVK eav 6p6a)S npocrevcyKTjs, opdcas de ^tj SieXiy?, ^fxapres', 
rjavxcKTOv. 

" Dost thou not sin if, while thou presentest rightly, thou 
dost not rightly divide the offering? be at peace. 

Holzinger ^ correctly observes that it is evident that 
the Septuaginta presupposes a different Hebrew text 
than the Massora has preserved, viz. : nn;^ (Lev. 1 :12) 
or IJ^^^? (Gen. 15:10) for nnS7- Holzinger adopts the 
Septuagintal rii^b? for the Massoretic riN^i^ 

The circumlocution of the Targum Oiikelos," as well 

^Tirke Aboth. Ill, 1. Cf. Taylor: Sayings of the Jewish 

Fathers, Cambridge, 1897. 

^ Genesis, Edinburgh, 1897, vol. I, p. 189. 

" Cf. Ball's ed. of Heb. text in P. B. 

^3 Genesis, Freiburg, i. B. 1898, p. 47. 

"* Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch dates from the 
middle of the first century B. C. Geiger in Urschrift (Bres- 
lau, 1857, p. 164) places it about 350 C. E. Karpeles: Gesch. 
der jiid. Lit., Berlin, 1886, vol. I, p. 353, puts it still later, 
into the sixth century C. E. 



IX THE Old Testament 41 

as of the Peshito,^ show how difficult the text appeared 
in those early days. 

: •: : t • It* t:t:»: •-;- • : • t : - t ' 

" If thou doest thy work well thou wilt be pardoned — if 
not — for the day of judgment the sin is laid up, ready to 
take vengeance upon thee, if thou dost not repent — but if 
thou dost repent, thou shalt be forgiven." ^ 

"Behold, if thou dost well thou receivest: and if not, at 
the door sin crouches" (Peshito). 

The Yulgate follows the reading of the Peshito : 
" None si bene egeris recipies, sin autem male, statim in 
foribus peccatum aderit." 

Graetz "" substitutes nnn for ns^n 

After studpng the various versions and commentar- 
ies ** I have adopted the reading of Rev. C. J. Ball,^ 
which is actually given by the Septuagint, except that I 
prefer the Massoretic inpvj'n to Ball's innvJTi Psy- 
chologically the Massora seems preferable here. Cain is 
sullen, not because his conscience upbraids him for what 
he has done, but he feels humiliated having his gift re- 
jected, while his brother^s gift is accepted. Xow JHVH 
lets him know that his sacrifice was not accepted on 

"Syriac translation of the Old Testament (200 C. E.) 

^^ Salomon b. Isak of Troves, generally quoted as Rashi 
(1040-1105), one of the most famous commentators of the 
Old Testament and the Talmud, agrees with Onkelos {vide 
ad Joe). 

^' Emendationes, Breslau, 1894. 

^Spurrell: Genesis, Oxford, 1896, p. 52; Ftirst: ZDMG 
XXXY, p. 134; Dillmann: Gen., vol. I, p. 188; Delitzsch: 
Gen., vol. I, p. 182. 

^Ball's critical ed. of Heb. text (P. B.), p. 49, note. 



42 Oeigix axd a iew of Evtl 

accoTuit of Ms sin. To find favor with JHTH he must 
avoid the temptation that has caused him to sin. Eev. 
Ball reads : 
T^Ki yi-) nxpn nm^ n^o^n vh dxi nxL'*^ 2'i:*n cs i6n 

"Is it not so? If you have not rightly (properly) sacri- 
ficed (offered), if you have not properly divided the vic- 
tims, you have done wrong (sinned). (You have no right 
to be angry at the consequences.) Be quiet (rest) thy 
brother's return will be to thee (i. e. he will defer, submit 
to you) and you will rule over him." 

The story of the Fall, a sad and somewhat pessimistic 
tale.*"' from the pen of the Jahvist. is but another attempt 
of the human mind to find a satisfactory explanation for 
the existence of sorrow and suffering, of sickness and 
death. Just as in the Greek fable of the Golden Age, 
man, in his pristine state of innocence, lived at peace, 
without moil and toil eating what the earth produced, 
but later was sentenced to earn his bread by agricultural 
toil, so in the second account of creation man fa llin g a 
prey to temptation is driven from Paradise, henceforth 
to till the soil in the sweat of his brow. Evil, with all 
its consequences, is thus the result of man's sinfulness.'" 

^(^n. 2:25-3:9 (P) (850 B. C); cf. also Worcester: The 
Bk. of (j€n., N. Y., 1901. Nork (Braminen u. Rabbinen, 
Meissen, 1836, pp. 87 ff, 108 ff, 138 ff) claims that the myth 
is taken from Persia and Egypt. 

^^ Gen. 2:17-19 (J-). The terms for '"sin" in Hebrew as 
well as in other Semitic languages, frequently do also sig- 
nify the consequence of sin, as punishment or the condition 
into which one is brought by sin. Thus in (Jen. 4:13 (J) 
pr NVJ':d *:ir h^li ^* ba rp IDS'^I "My punishm.ent 
is greater than I can bear," expresses both punishment 
and sin (comp. Isa. 5:18). At the same time the 
various expressions for sin give the different degrees of 



IN THE Old Testament 43 

As far as the Old Testament is concerned, there is little 
convincing evidence that the story of the Fall was much 
in the thoughts of the sacred writers.*^ The Old Testa- 
punishment and moral culpability. Thus in Lam. 3:39 
son in the verse: rSDH-^i; 133 ^n D"li< p^t^n^nD 
"Wherefore does a man complain while living, a man 
on account of the punishment for his sins." Comp. Lev. 
19:17; 20:20; 22:29; 24:15; cf. also Lohr (Nowack) Die 
Klagelieder, Gott., 1893, note to 3:39. 

Also h)V in Lev. 19:15 (H) : n^'^rp2h)V )bvn-i6 
" Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment." 

Also DJ^'S in Jerem 51:5 (not genuine, late): 

ns^Q DV-is ""S nixn^ ^^p vn'^xp ni^nw hi^-^^^ ]d7^'i6 '•3 

" For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah of JHVH . . . 
though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of 
Israel." Comp. I Chron. 21:3. 
Also ri^S in Gen. 50:17 (JE 640 B. C.) 

" So shall ye say to Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the 
transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, for evil have 
they done thee: and now, we pray thee forgive the trans- 
gression ..." 

Also V'^1 in Jer. 14:20 (597 B. C): 

It tt« •-; ":• :"T 

"We know, O JHVH, our wickedness, and the iniquity of 
our fathers ..." 

Cf. on subject of sin H. Schultz: Alttest Theologie, p. 684; 
Spurrell: Genesis, p. 55; Briggs: The Higher Criticism of 
Hexateuch, N. Y., 1897, pp. 153 ff; Cheyne: Origin of Psal- 
ter, p. 356 n; Casanowicz: Pronomasia in O. T., Boston, 
1894, p. 55; Haupt: Hebraica, I, p. 219; Lohr: Die Klage- 
lieder, Gott., 1893, p. 16 n; Bernard's art. "Sin" in Hast- 
ings' Diet, of the Bible, vol. IV, p. 528 b. 

*^The garden of Eden is possibly alluded to by the 
prophets of the captivity. Ez. 28:13; 31:9; Isa. 51:3. The 
tree of life, Prov. 3 : 18 ; 11 : 30. 



4A Okigin and View of Evil 

ment does not anywhere teach a corruption of human 
nature derived from Adam, still less an imputation of 
his guilt. Sin, as an offence of man against God, occu- 
pies a most prominent place in Old Testament thought, 
but nowhere is it traced to Adam's disobedience. The 
peculiar social and political conditions which sponsored 
Christianity, prepared a fruitful soil for the reception 
of a myth of the fall of man, common among all ancient 
peoples.*^ In fact, it made such an impression that it 
became one of the chief dogmas of Primitive Chris- 
tianity. The theory that human nature is a ruin gained 
credence among the awful degeneracy and corruption 
that mark the period when the Eoman Empire was tot- 
tering to its fall. Men fancied that, with the rapid 
decline of that great and proud world-power, the world 
itself was hastening to its end. The view of man's 
nature, as moulded by Paul into a dogmatic belief, gave 
a decidedly pessimistic tinge to Christianity, and is re- 
sponsible for much of the gloom that pervaded the ages 
in which the Church was the supreme arbiter of the 
Western world. Wenley thus states,** that of the prob- 
lem of evil with its speculative question, respecting 
origin and end, the Jew knew nothing.*^ Punishment 
in the mind of the ancient Hebrews was ever intimately 
associated with sin. This practical view of sin pre- 
supposes a Personal Creator and a personal creation, 
presuppositions amplified in the Old Testament by the 

*^ Cf. Nork: Braminen u. Rabbinen, Meissen, 1836, pp. 
87 ff, 108 ff, 138 ff; Robertson Smith: The Rel. of the Sem- 
ites, p. 307; "Fall of man in Babylonian seals," J. A. O. S. 
11:17, 39, and "Serpent" in J. A. O. S. 15:19ff. 

** Aspects of Pess., p. 1. 

*^Cf. Giidemann: D. Judenthum, Wien, 1902, p. 17. 



IN THE Old Testament 45 

direct and intimate relation of the Holy One of Israel 
to the chosen people. Thus we read in the Psalms, 
which "coin the longings and yearnings of the human 
heart into words/' how man is a child of God, sur- 
rounded by the love of a Father who has pity and for- 
giveness for the weaknesses and failings of his offspring. 
Nowhere any trace that may lead one to suppose that 
there was a fall, or any discord between a father and his 
children. 
" Bless JHVH, O my soul! 

Forget not all His benefits (Ps. 103:2) (P. B.) 

Who has forgiven all thy trespasses, 

And has healed all thine infirmities (ibid. 3), 

Who has redeemed thy life from the pit. 

And has crowned thee with goodness and mercy (ibid. 4). 

As a father loves his children. 

So JHVH loves those who fear Him. 

For He understands our nature. 

He knows that we are dust " (ibid. 13, 14) 
" Thou causest grass to grow for cattle. 

And herb for the service of man. 

So that bread may come forth from the earth. 

And wine to cheer man's heart, 

Oil to make his skin to shine. 

And bread to strengthen man's heart" (Ps. 104:14, 15) 
P. B.) 

In the eighth Psalm, rather than in Job, we find ex- 
pressed the Old Testament idea of the destiny and dig- 
nity of man. In Job we read : 

" What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him, and that 
Thou shouldest set Thy mind upon him ? " *® 

In the eighth Psalm, which is older than the passage 



46 Obigix axd Yiew of Evil 

from Job and more recent than the Priestly ac-connt of 
creation/' we read : 

"What is man that Thou takest thought of him, 
And the son of man that Thou heedest him! " 

This query finds an answer in what follows : 
" Thou hast made him in rank little less than divine. 
Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor! 
Thou hast given him dominion over the creatures of Thy 

hand, 
And to him hast Thou made all things subject" (P. B.) 

In the IMishnah Aboth a similar thoaght finds expres- 
sion: Eabbi Akiba (died 136 C. E.) said: 

" Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God : 
but it was by a special act of grace that this was made 

known to him.'" - 

!Man. created in the image of his Maker,*^ and to whom 
Grod Himself appeals in the words, " Ye shall be holy : 
for I JH\ Jd your G-od am holy/"' "^ could not have been 
created burdened with sin. To become holy he must 
start life without any heritage of sin. 

The Xew Testament teaching that death came into 
the world through sin ^ is not known to the Old Testa- 
ment, at least not in the categorical way in which it is 
stated in the Xew Testament and in the Talmud. That 
death is the consequence of sin, and not an event com- 

*' Cf. Wellhausen's critical notes on Psalm VIII (Engl, 
transl. of P. B.) 
^^111:18 

1^ nrii: nnn: n|n dS^'3 xnnsc^ dix n^nn ip!s ni'pv "i 

DN-i^x ch'^2 s-i23e^ 

*^G€n. 1:26 (500 B. C.) 

=°Lev. 19:2b (H). DD\n^K »* »3J1 C'lip O vnn D^K'np 

^' Pwomans. chpts. 5-8. 



ix THE Old Testament 47 

mon to all physical life, is but a natural sequence of the 

Old Testament conception of re^^ard and punishment 
developed throughout Daniel and the Apocryphal liter- 
ature. This view of the causal relation between sin and 
death is the dominant one in the Talmud. Thus we 
read: Eabbi Ami" said: "There is no death without 
(preceding) sin, and no suffering without (preceding) 
transgression.'" '^' In support of this Eabbi Ami quotes 
two scriptural passages — Ez. 18 : 4b, "• The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die/' and Ps. 89 : 32, "' Then will I visit 
their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity 
with stripes.'' Similarly, Eabbi Chijah b. Abba," who 
said : " The sick will not be restored to health unless his 
transgressions had been forgiven." ^ 

I fully coincide with Stade,'^ who denies that ancient 
Israel looked upon death as punishment for sin solely. 
Death is something natural, the consequence of man's 
physical nature from which no one can escape. Stade 
argues with much cogency, that as all must die, death 
cannot well be punishment for sin. It is true, that for 

" Fourth century C. E. 

^ (Sabbath 55a) p,S ifhl pllD* TKI spn i02 nn^O pX 
Comp. Berachoth 33a: Aboda Sara 5a; Pesikta 76a; Sifre 
138b; Midr. R. Gen. XXI; ibid., Exod. III. Cf. also Spira: 
Die Eschatologie d. Juden., Halle, 1889, chpt. I. 

^ Third cent. C. E. 

* Nedarim 41a. rni:ii; Sd ^h T^mo^' nr v'?nD idv rh^nn px 

Comp. Sabbath 32a. 

K3n ^h ::-'i'2',}< -bn* ::s'j' n^-« sb-j* c^om dix c^2* c:?ir'? 

"Man should pray for health, for if he falls ill people will 
say to him. Show your merits in order that healing may 
come to you" (from God). 
^ Gesch. d. V. Jisroel, Berl., 1887, vol. I, p. 513. 



48 Origin and View of Evil 

some sins death appears as punishmeiit — thus the dese- 
cration of the ark of the covenant was visited with 
death." All must die, mnst pay the same debt to 
nature. 

" Where is the man who has lived, and did not see death, 
Who would save his life from the hand of Sheol? " ^ 

There are several references in the Apocalyptic lit- 
erature to the Fall: 

" Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through 
her we all died." °^ 

" Nevertheless through the envy of the devil came death 
into the world." ^ 

" The first Adam having a wicked heart transgressed and 
was overcome and so we all that are born of him. O, thou 
Adam, what hast thou done? for though it was thou that 
sinned, thou art not fallen alone, but we all that come of 
thee." ^''a 

Yet, side by side with these sentiments we frequently 
meet with the Old Testament conception, i. e. that death 
is a law of physical nature. 

"All things that are of the earth shall return to the earth."^^ 
" He gave them a few days and a short time." ^^ 

The Judaic author of the account of creation intro- 
duces the serpent into Eden ^ as a tempter, ^ot until 
the time of the Wisdom of Solomon is Satan identified 
with the serpent. " For G-od created man to be immor- 
tal .. . yet through envy of the devil came death 
into the world " (2 : 23, 24). The Talmudic doctors, un- 

''l Sam. 6:19ff; II Sam. 6:6 f. 

^«Ps. 89:49 (after 721 B. C.) ; comp. Ps. 49:8-12; Eccl. 3:19. 

^^Sirach 25:24. «°Wis. of Sol. 2:24a. 

^°aii Esdras 3:20, 21. 

«^ Sirach 4:11 . i2)^'> pX ^J5 pKD ^JD) 

"Sirach 17:2a. ® Cf . Excursus. Eden. 



IX THE Old Testament 49 

der the influence of Primitive Christianity, speak of an 
original sin and of Satan as the evil principle, who in 
the guise of a serpent had sexual intercourse with Eve, 
and owing to this the descendants of Eve were contami- 
nated, which contamination lasted until the giving of 
the Law on Sinai.^ This element of Pessimism was to 
correct the fundamental error of Optimism, necessitated 
by the facts of existence.^ Evil and error had to be ac- 
counted for in some way. To make God the Creator 
of a good world,*'^ at the same time the author of evil and 
of death " would never do. Theism is forced to seek the 
cause of evil outside of God, i. e. since save God only his 
creatures exist, the cause must be in them. The third 
chapter of Genesis bears on its face the mark of a simple 
folk-tale.^ The writer seems to repeat it because his 
ancestors had believed that the origin of clothing, etc., 
could be explained in that manner. Sin, depravity and 
the need of redemption, were never focal in the Old 
Testament. In the scheme and system of the Old Tes- 
tament interpretation of the world and man, the vital 
thought is man rising, not man fallen. The belief in 
the perf ectability of human nature was a belief strongly 

" Talm. Sabbath 164a. 

®^Cf. Schopenhauer: Griesbach ed., vol. V, p. 397. 

^ First account of creation. 

""For God made not death," W. of Sol., 1:13a. 

^Cf. E. Worcester: The Book of Genesis in the light of 
modern knowledge, N. Y., 1901; B. T. A. Evetts: New Light 
on the Bible and the Holy Land, N. Y.; C. J. Ball: Light 
from the East, or the Witness of the Monuments, London, 
1899; H. Zimmern: The Babylonian and the Hebrew 
Genesis, London, 1901; F. Delitzsch: Babel and Bible, 
Chicago and London, 1902; H. Radau: The Creation — 
Story of Grenesis I, Chicago and London, 1902. 
4 



50 Oeigix axd View of Evil 

ingrained in the consciousness of the ancient Hebrew. 
Man bom in the image of a God, who is holy, shall en- 
deavor to realize holiness in his daily life, yes, it be- 
comes his duty to do so."^ 

TVith the growing conception of God and of the world 
aroimd them, the old doctrine of Eetribntion, never 
wholly overcome in the ages of the Old Testament litera- 
ture, seemed to conflict. Satan becomes a most oppor- 
tune expedient for the need of an advanced religious 
reflection, to put God out of relation to the evil of the 
world.'^ In proportion as men began to conceive a 
widening gulf between God and His creation, or, as the 
concept of JHYH became to the Hebrews more trans- 
cendent, it was easy enough to And some use for angel? 
and demons in the affairs of the world. The exiles com- 
ing in contact with the civilization of Babylonia and 
Persia^ must have felt that their own views of the world 
were narrow and limited, and that their national God 
JHYH had power over all the nations and peoples of 
the world. JHTH was thus looMng also after the 
affairs of others besides those of His chosen people. This 
growing knowledge made God seem more distant, further 
removed from them in space, as it were. This led the 
Jews in post-exilic days to borrow sufficiently of the 
Dualism of Persia as to dream of an archangel rebellious 
in Heaven who became the enemy and tempter of man. 
This is substantiated by the Talmud where it is said 

^Lev. 19:2b (H). 

™Cf. Meinhold: "Das Problem d. Buches Hiob " in Neue 
Jbrbch. f. deutsche Theol., I, p. 70 (Bonn) ; also, Hart- 
mann: Das religiose Bewusstsein, p. 451. 

•-This belief seems to be opposed to by Isajah 45:5-7 (cf. 
Cbevne's edit, of Hebrew text in P. B.. where this passage 
is considered as not being genuine). 



IN THE Old Testament 51 

" that tlie names of the angels came from Babylonia/^ " 
In one of the latest Midrashic collections Samael, i. e. 
Satan, Tras banished from Heaven for rebelKon.'' Satan 
endeavored to draw Michael after him into banishment 
when God saved Michael. 

There seems to be general agreement as to the Jewish 
religion having received a wholesome stimulus during 
the period of the Captivity (586-536 B. C.).'' The exiles 
returned to their native land with a purified faith and a 
deepened religious fervor. Tliis may be due to their 
wonderful deliverance. JHYH had foretold through 
His prophets their deliverance, and He has called C}tu3 
from the ends of the earth to chastise Israel's enemy 
and to give them freedom.'^ Henceforth, they were 
faithful followers of the one God, the God of Israel. 

^Cf. Graetz: Gnosticismus, Krotoschin, 1846; also Koliut: 
(Iber. d. jiid. Angelologie u. Demonologie, 1866, and "Was 
hat d. talm. Eschatologie v. d. Parsismus aufgenommen " in 
Z. D. M. G., 1867, pp. 552 f; Geiger's Ztschf., vol. IV, p. 70; 
Jackson (Zoroaster, N. Y., 1899, p. 140) states: "Zoroaster's 
teachings had already taken deep root in the soil of Iran 
when the Jews were in captivity in Babylon; " also Rosen- 
zweig: D. Jahrhundert n. d. Babyl. Exil., BerL, 1885, pp. 
10 ff; Graetz: Krit. Comm. z. d. Psalmen, Breslau, 1883, vol. 
II, p. 513; Moulton: "Zoroastrianism " in Hastings' Diet, 
of the Bible, vol. IV. 

^^Midr. Jalkut to Gen. No. 68. 

'* Cf. Cheyne: Jewish Rel. Life after the Exile, N. Y., 1898, 
p. 173; also Pfleiderer: Wesen d. Rel., Lpzg., 1869, p. 344; 
Tiele: Gesch. d. Rel. im Altertum, Gotha, 1896, vol. I, pp. 
362 fC; Graetz: Hist of the Jews, Phila., 1895, vol. V, pp. 
720 ff; Geiger: D. Judent. u. seine Gesch., Breslau, 1864, 
vol. I, pp. 67 ff; Wellhausen: Israel and Judah, London, 
1891, pp. 124 ff. 

"Isa., chpts. 40-48 (538 B. C.) Cf. Cheyne's critical notes 
in Engl, transl. of Isa. in P. B., p. 209. 



5^ Origiist and View of Eyil 

The germ of the Satan-idea may possibly be traced to 
I Kings 22:19-23/' where a prophet in the days of 
King Ahab (919-897 B. C.) vividly depicts a scene in 
the council of JHVH, in which a certain spirit volun- 
teers, and is commissioned to be a lying spirit in the 
month of Ahab^s prophet, that thereby the king may 
be deceived. Satan in Job " is an angel skeptical not 
of righteousness in general, but of the righteousness of 
a certain individual. In no sense is he a tempter. He 
is still one of the sons of Grod, who like the other angels 
has free access to the council-chamber of the Great 
Judge. He is dependent upon God, and has no part 
whatever in the management of the affairs of the earth. 
God alone is the author of all.'^* The Talmudic doctors 
condemn the Essenes for heterodoxy, because' they make 
God the author of good, but not of evil.'^^^ Satan occu- 
pies a subordinate position, he is a creation of God's 
hand, and shares the fate of all creation."^ 

^^Cf. Kautzsch: "Die Heilige Schrift " who calls it an 
Ephraimitic narrative from the ninth century. 
" Chpts. 1 and 2. 

^^n'^v h^n >^ ''jx n «-ini n)h\y r\'^v itj'n nni ^i« "ivr 

Isa. 45:7 (546 B. C.) 

Cf. Cheyne's ed. of Heb. text of Isajah in P. B., p. 46; also 
his critical notes in Engl, transl., note 20, p. 176. 

^^aCf. Talm. Megillah 25a; Berachoth 23b. 

■'Sb Traces of belief in evil spirits may be found in Lev. 
17:7 (H); Deut. 30:17 (Dt); Isa. 13:21; Jer. 1:39. The 
belief that certain animals were endowed with demonic 
powers, somewhat like the Arabic jinn, must have existed 
in comparatively early pre-exilic days, since Gen. 3 : 1-19, con- 
taining the temptation of Eve by the serpent, belongs to 
the earlier stratum of J (comp. Numbers 22:22-34, the same 
documentary source). But in the narrative of the tempta- 



IN THE Old Testament 53 

But the Jewish idea of Satan received some additional 
features from the attributes of the gods of the surround- 
ing nations. Nothing is more common in history than 
the change of deities of hostile nations into demons of 
evil. Thus Beelzebub, the Phoenician god, became an- 
other name for Satan/^ and Hinnom (i. e. Gehenna), the 
place where Moloch had been worshipped became the 
Hebrew name for hell in place of Sheol. In the third 
chapter of Zechariah ^° Joshua, the High-Priest, is stand- 
ing before the angel of JHVH, and Satan stands at his 
right side to be his adversary. Satan is, here, obviously 
a regularly accredited official in Heaven, whose duty it 
is to present before JHVffS tribunal charges against 
mankind. In Chronicles*' Satan has developed into a 
distinct personality, at enmity with JHVH and right- 
eousness, gifted with power almost equal to that of Grod 
Himself. He stood up against Israel, and moved David 
to number the people. If we contrast this incident with 
the one related in Samuel *^ (pre-exilic) where we read : 
" And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against 
Israel, and He moved David against them, saying, G-o 
number Israel and Judah," we discern that in the more 

tion of Eve there is no hint that an evil spirit resided in 
the serpent. Cf. Whitehouse article, Demon, in Hastings' 
Bibl. Diet, vol. I; Duschak: Die Bibl. Talmudische Glaub- 
enslehre, Breslau, 1885, pp. 137 ff; A. Wise: "The Origin 
of Jewish Angelology and Demonology," Conference Papers, 
N. Y., 1888; Boswell: "The Evolution of Angels and De- 
mons " in Open Court, Chicago, Aug., 1900. 

'^ Cf. Art. " Beelzebub " in Jewish Encycl., vol. II, p. 629b. 

«" (520 B. C.) In the Targum Jonathan ben Uzziel (c. 
35 C. E.) the term |D5^ in Zech. 3:1, 2 is rendered nXDH 
and i^Dnj the latter meaning one who tempts to sin. 

«U Bk. 21:1 (300 B. C.) «^ II Sam. 24:1. 



54 Origin and View of Evil 

recent accoimt Satan assumes the task ascribed to God 
in the pre-exilic narrative. The conception of Satan, 
which finds its source in the belief in supernatural beings, 
common to all peoples in their early stage of civiliza- 
tion, is more and more developed by the Apocalyptic ^' 
and Apocryphal writers,^^^ until it reaches its final devel- 
opment in the New Testament where Satan is looked 
upon as the veritable Master of this world. As Master 
of this world he is antagonistic to God. Satan is " the 
God of this world " who " hath blinded the minds of the 
unbelieving.^^ ^* This view of Satan is foreshadowed in 
the Wisdom of Solomon,^" where Satan is possessed of 
power independent of God and dares to oppose God^s 
plan — " through envy of the devil came death into the 
world." ^^ When Eome finally conquered Judaea (70 
C. E.), and JHYH failed to interfere in behalf of those 
who looked upon Him as their special Protector and 
Friend, Satan^s position became more exalted, hence- 

*^ Deane states (Pseudepigrapha, Edinb., 1891, Introd.) : 
" The degradation of Israel under its pagan oppressors, and 
the temporary triumph of the chosen people in the Macca- 
bean period, gave rise to the Apocalyptic literature. An un- 
swerving zeal for the Law, and a glowing hope of a happy 
future, formed the characteristics of this period." Cf, also 
Hibbert Lectures, 1892, p. 467. 

83a Writings, partly in Hebrew and partly in Greek, having 
some pretension to the character of Scriptures, or received 
as such by certain sects, but excluded from the Canon. Cf. 
Art. "Apocrypha" in Jewish Encycl., vol. II; Karpeles: 
Gesch. d. jlld. Lit., Berl., 1886, vol. I, pp. 168 ff ; Joel. Blicke 
i. d. Religionsgesch., vol. I, pp. 68 fC. 

"II Cor. 4:4. 

^'Cf. Siegfried's transl. in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. I, p. 
479. 

«2:24. 



IN THE Old Testament 55 

fortli lie is the Priuce of Evil to whom God has assigned 
the rule of the present world until He Himself will in- 
tercede and bring about the Kingdom of God. In the 
New Testament his powers are fully recognized.*^ Jesus, 
his disciples, and all the writers of the ^ew Testament, 
had a profound and vigorous belief in the devil and in 
evil spirits.'' In the Book of Tobit (c. 100 B. C.) angels 
and demons, for the first time in Jewish literature, play 
an important part. Here the angels are possessed of 
power to save men from impending trouble, also from 
evil spirits. Eaphael, the archangel, cures blindness 
and other ills human flesh is heir to ; also Sara he gives 
for a wife to Tobias, and he has the power to bind evil 
spirits.'' The angels are on friendly footing with men.*' 
Tobias sends the angel to fetch some money, and to- 
gether they attend a wedding." 

"Matt. 13:39; John 12:31. 

««Matt. 12:25-28; Luke 10:17-20. 

^Z:n. ^''5:16. 

"Chpt. IX; cf. Spencer (Principles of Sociology, N. Y., 
1901, vol. I, p. 242) : " In the earlier days the Hebrews em- 
ployed some physical process, akin to the process we find 
among savages, such as making a dreadful stench by burn- 
ing the heart and liver of a fish. Through such exorcism, 
taught by the angel Raphael, the demon Asmodeus was 
driven out and fled to Egypt when he had smelled the 
smoke. But later as in the exorcism of Christ, the physical 
process was replaced by the compulsion of superior super- 
natural agency." Cf. also Kohut: " D. B. Tobit" in 
Geiger's Ztschft., 1872, p. 50; Kohut: Angelology u. Demon- 
ology, p. 72, where Asmodeus is identified with Aeshman in 
Zend Avesta; Cams: The Hist, of the Devil and the idea 
of Evil, Chicago, 1900; Everett: "The Devil" in New 
World, March, 1895, and "Der Damon Asmodeus i. B. To- 
bias " in Theol. Quartalschrift. 1856, pp. 422-445. 



CHAPTEE IT 
View of Life ln' the Old Testamext 

ETerTwhere in the Old Testament the joyons and 
harmonious notes of life are accentuated. Life is syn- 
onymous with good and blessing, death with eyil. 
Therefore, in Genesis 3: 19 (.P) death is spoken of as a 
curse and a punishment/ The optimistic view of life 
came naturally to the ancient Hebrews. It stood at 
the foundation of their religious creed. Xot, that the 
ancient Hebrews were ignorant of any discordant note 
in life's symphony, but they reasoned, that as God 
created the world, evil must be the work of man. 
Judaism, as soon as it made itself felt as a philosophy 
of life, was conquered by an ardent faith in Providence, 
and Optimism remained the dominant view through the 
ages. Schopenhauer, greatly struck by this fact, as- 
serts,' that the fundamental distinction between reli- 
gions was not a matter of Monotheism or Polytheism, 
Pantheism or Atheism, but of Optimism and Pessimism. 
That makes, Schopenhauer continues, the fundamental 
distiaction between the Old Testament and Xew Testa- 
ment. The Old Testament was a religion of Optimism, 
the New Testament that of Pessimism. ^'And God 
saw all that He had made, and behold it was very 

^Gunzig: Der Pessimismus im Judenthum, Krakau, 1S99, 
p. 9. 

'Griesbach ed., vol. II. p. 196. Cf. Lowenstein : Schopen- 
hauer und d. Judentum in Dr. Gossel's " Popular-wissen- 
schaftUche Vortrage, Frankfurt a/:M, 1902. 



58 View of Life in the Old Testament 

good " ' holds the entire philosophy of Optimism. Ex- 
cept in the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes, and in a f ew 
of the Psalms, it scarcely occurred to the Hebrew mind 
that there conld be any other view of life than that 
which looked out upon it through the medium of satis- 
faction and hope. The predominant note of cheerful- 
ness running through the Old Testament was, undoubt- 
edly, the outcome of faith, a complete dependence upon 
a God who had ordered all things for a beneficent pur- 
pose.* The course of human civilization conclusively 
indicates that all peoples start from a simple Optimism, 
but, that owing to the exigencies of life. Pessimism 
crowds out Optimism, as it were. Thus in India and 
Greece the pessimistic philosophy of life was developed 
into a system. In the Old Testament, on the other 
hand, the pessimistic tendency was successfully over- 
come by faith in a Creator and the goodness and wis- 
dom of His work.^ The Proverb : 

" A merry heart causes good healing 
But a broken spirit dries up the bones." ^ 

expresses tersely the Old Testament view of life. In 
the midst of the joy and gladness of life the few pessi- 
mistic utterances are lost sight of in the Old Testament. 
If it depicts life as full of troubles, it portrays life as 
full of victory over troubles. If clouds that overhang 
men often seem black and sullen, in the very heart of 

^Gen. 1:31a (P) ib<p ntD-nan? r\m -l^■^?-^rnx u^rh^ \!i,y_\ 

*Cf. Mechilta to Ex. 16:4: tHDJIS X"in DV ^12^ ^» 
"He who created the day, prepared also the daily suste- 
nance." Comp. Ta.lm. Sota 48b. 

'Philippson: Weltbewegende Fragen, Lpzg., 1869, vol. I, 
p. 134. 

U7:22: Dnrs^a::^ nx.?;3 mni nm np.v nt^w 2^ 



View of Life in the Old Testament 59 

the cloud " springs the bow of Hope." One cannot 
read far in its pages without meeting with expressions 
of ethical courage and strains of hope and joy in moral 
victory. The moral achievement is assumed as a mat- 
ter of course, and is attended by the blessedness of 
dwelling in the Divine Presence. This is voiced in the 
fifteenth psalm: 
" O JHVH, in Thy tent, who dares to sojourn? 

On Thy holy mountain, who dares to dwell? 

He who lives blamelessly, and practices righeteousness. 

And speaks from his heart what is true, 

Who utters no slander with his tongue, 

Does no wrong to another, 

And his neighbor he does not calumniate. 

Pompous arrogance he despises, 

The God-fearing man he respects. 

He pledges his word to his neighbor and keeps it. 

He puts not out his money at interest, 

And cannot be bribed to injure the innocent. 

He who does this, for all time cannot be shaken." (P. B.) 

" Be glad in JHVH, and exult, O ye righteous. 

Shout for joy, all ye who are honest of mind" (Ps. 32).^ 
" Though I walk in the midst of distress. Thou keepest me 
alive; 

Against the anger of my foes Thou stretchest Thy hand; 

Thy right hand helps me. 

JHVH recompenses me, 

Thy goodness, O JHVH, is ever-enduring. 

Forsake not the works of Thy hands " (Ps. 138:7, 8).' 



'' Pre-exilic. Cf . Ewald : Die poetischen Biicher des Alten 
Bundes, Gottingen, 1835, vol. II., p. 45; cf. also Cheyne: 
Origin of Ps., N. Y., 1895, p. 89 ad locum; " Note how the 
O. T. religion is throughout one of joy." 

« 500 B. C. 



60 ^'IET^ OF Life ix the Old Testamext 

" Whither can I go from Thy spirit? 
Or vrhither flee from Thy countenance? 
If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there! 
If I should take the wings of the dawn. 
And alight in the uttermost parts of the sea. 
Even there would Thy hand lead me, 
And Thy right hand hold me." (Ps. 139:7-10.) (P. B.) 

Expressions of despondency, bordering on despair, 
serve only to throw into greater relief the nnconquer- 
able faith in a living God, a faith re-echoed in all the 
writings of the Prophets and Psalmists: 
" What is man that Thou takest thought of him, 
And a son of man that Thou heedest him? " (Ps. 8:4.) 

These cheerless and gloomy musings of the poet are 
suddenly changed to a tone of hopefulness, he, evi- 
dently, catches himseK in time and the native Optim- 
ism of his people reasserts itself and he continues: 
" Thou hast made him in rank little less than divine, 
Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor! 
Thou hast given him dominion over the creatures of Thy 

hand, 
And to him hast Thou made all things subject." (Ps. 
8:5-6.)^ 

In the forty-ninth Psalm, a composition later than 
the eighth Psalm, the process is reversed. The Psalm- 
ist opens with an expression of confidence in JHVH 
and puts from him any thought of fear in the day 
of misfortune. But after some reflection upon the 
variety of things men are accustomed to value, and 
upon the universality of death, he falls into a pessi- 
mistic mood: 

^ Later than 500 B. C. 



View of Life ix the Old Testaaiext 61 

" Why should I fear in days of misfortune, 
When the malice of mine oppressor surround me, 

Man does not continue in lordliness; 

He is like to the beast that is slaughtered." (Ps. 49: 
5, 12.) 

Studying the Old Testament one must be impressed 
with the fact that the optimistic, as well as the pessi- 
mistic Yiews held therein, do not lose themselves in 
shallow vaporings or in morbid vapid reflections as both 
views are represented by ideal conceptions of what is 
perfect and satisfying. The optimist believes in his 
notion as a possibility and certainty; the pessimist, on 
the contrary, uses his ideal purely as a concept for 
bringing into bolder relief and clearer outhnes the 
worthlessness and the unsatisfying character of reality. 
These views are clearly enunciated in the Old Testa- 
ment. The ancient Hebrews felt that there are things 
in the world that they desired. The ever-recurring 
burden of prophecy as well as the basic thought of the 
Khokma literature, is the final vindication of virtue, 
and the destruction of vice. The ancient Hebrews 
felt within themselves the desire to combat the evil and 
to help the cause of justice and righteousness. The 
mere belief that evil can be lessened, if not wholly 
removed, and that vice and injustice can be conquered, 
makes for an optimistic view of life. 

The joyous strain of existence bursts forth every- 
where. The cult, too, is marked by a characteristic of 
joy and cheer, for it signified union between the Creator 
and his creation — man.'° 

^° " Freude war der Grundton des althehralschen Cultus, 
well er die Yereinigung der Menschen mit Gott und unter- 
einander bedeutete." Cf. Smend: Religionsgesch., Freiburg, 
1893, second ed., p. 125. 



62 View of Life ix the Old Testament 

Thus we read: 

" Rejoice in thy feast." " 

" Rejoice, thou and thine household." " 

" And thou shalt be altogether joyful." ^ 

" Rejoice in all you do." " 

" And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God." " 

" Serve JHVH with delight, 

Come before Him with songs of gladness." ^° 
" Rejoice, young man, in thy youth." " 
" Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy." ^* 

It is characteristic of the Optimism of the Old Testa- 
ment that he who took iipon himself the vow of the 
jSTazarite had to bring a sin-offering (Xiim. 6 : 2-20 P), 
to atone, evidently, for having foresworn the joys and 
pleasures of life/*^ 

The conception of joy, in the Old Testament, is free 
from the charge of being extreme. It means neither 
surrender to the world and its pleasures and pastimes, 
nor escape from them. All things having emanated 
from God — the sourse of perfection — are, therefore,- 
good. Over-indulgence or abuse makes them evil. 
The Pagan was an extremist in his mode of living. 
Either, he gave himself whoUy up to a life of License 

^^Deiit. 16:14 (D), 623 B. C. 
"Deut. 14:26 (D), 623 B. C. 
^^Deut. 16:15 (D), 623 B. C. 

"Deut. 12:7 (D), 623 B. C. Cf. I K. 8:66 (Dt), 600 B.C. 
"Lev. 23:40 (H), 500 B. C. 
^«Ps. 100:2 (post-exilic). 

"Eccl. 11:9a (37-4 B. C.) (genuine). Cf. Haupt: The Bk. 
of Eccl. in Oriental Studies, p. 256. 
^^Eccl. 9:7a (37-4 B. C.) (genuine). 
"^aCf. Talmud Nasir 19a: 22a. 



View of Life ix the Old Testament 63 

and sensuality, or he fled from the madding world as 
from something to he ahhorred. Wilnsche correctly 
sums up the Old Testament view of life:'' "Enjoy- 
ment of life and true piety/' he states, " are not incom- 
patible with one another/' Xowhere does joy degen- 
erate, in the Old Testament, into frivolity and immor- 
ality. In his most joyful mood the Hebrew never for- 
got his dependence upon JHYH, who being a God of 
holiness required, "to do justly, and to love kindness, 
and to walk humbly with thy God/"''' To the Greek 
god and man were not even contrasted as perfect and 
imperfect, for Olympus repeats and exaggerates all the 
vices of men. The god of the Greeks was simply an 
intensified, not a purified, man."^ Greek religion grew 
out of the self-assertion of man. It knows nothing of 
the antithesis of Creator and creature, so strongly em- 
phasized in the Old Testament. 

Furthermore, it must be noticed that to the ancient 
Hebrew the hedonistic value of life did not imply sel- 
fishness. He consecrated his joy by making others par- 
ticipants in it; he understood that if we would make 
our own life joyful, we must send sunshine into the 
lives of others. In brief, to have joy, we must give joy. 
The commandment that enjoins the celebration of the 

"Cf. Wiinsche: D. Freude in d. Schriften d. Alten Bundes, 
Weimar, 1896, p. 44. 

^Micah 6:8 (650 B. C). 

^Cf. Nietzsche: Ubermensch., Stuttgart, 1897, p. 24, 71; 
also by same author, "Also sprach Zarathustra," Lpzg., 1897, 
vol. I, p. 112; Fouillee: "The Ethics of Nietzsche and 
Guyan," in Int. J. of Ethics, vol. XIII, No. 1 (Oct., 1902). 



64 A'lEw OF Life ix the Old Testament 

Feast of Weeks ^ closes with the injunctioii, •' then 
shalt rejoice "before JHVH. Thy God, thou, thy son. 
thy daughter, thy man-seryant, thy maid-servant, the 
Levite who is within thy gates, the stranger, the father- 
less and the widow who are in thy midst.*' ^ In addi- 
tion to the feasts enjoined by the Law, festal-gather- 
ings to celehrate joyful domestic events were frequent. 
Laban celebrated the nuptials of Jacob and Eachel." 
Prominent strangers are made welcome by a gathering 
to which many are bidden.^ Also when Isaac is 
weaned Abraham celebrates the event,^ and the harvest 
was a time of song and mirth." 

The attitude of the Old Testament toward external 
goods was, upon the whole, sensible and manly. They 
were neither overvalued nor despised.^ The ordinary 
external joys of Hfe have, ever, seemed to the ancient 
Hebrew very real and precious. The desire for wealth 
is, nowhere, looked down up, and poverty that is 
voluntary is not extolled as a virtue. Poverty is rather 
looked upon as an evil, as is expressed by one of the 
sages of the Talmud, "' the life of the poor is no Uf e.^' ** 
On the other hand, the dangers of great wealth are 
pointed out as leading to idolatry and to oppression of 

-Deut. 16:9-11 (D) ; comp. ibid., 25:25-28 (D). 

= Deut. 16:11 (D); comp. ibid., 16:14. 

2* Gen. 29:22 (P). 

^Exod. 18:12 (RJE). -Gen. 21:8 (E). 

-'Isa. 16:10 (c. 540 B. C). Cf. Chevne's critical notes to 
Heb. text in P. B., p. 126, 1. 5. 

^ Cf . Pfeiffer: D. Religios-sitilicbe Weltanschauung d. 
B. d. Spriiche, Miinchen, 1897, p. 232: cf. also Eccl. 40:25-27; 
Wellhausen: Israel, u. Jiid. Gesch., BerL, p. 215. 

^(Talm. Nedarim 64b) 'in inViDI ^U' riDD pniC^n nmiJ? 
comp. ibid., Tb. 



View of Life in the Old Testament 65 

others."" The prophets denounce wealth as the cause 
of selfishness: 

" Woe unto those who join house to house, who add field 
to field, till there is no more room, and ye are settled alone 
in the midst of the land!" (P. B.)'^ 

Then wealth leads to enervating luxury as described 
by Amos/^ There is reason to believe that the insti- 
tutions of the Shemitta and of the Jubilee year ^ were 
called forth as a check upon the amassing of great 
wealth and as a prevention of pauperism. 

The Wisdom-literature, which reflects the practical 
affairs of life, is of much importance for the study of 
the view of life common among the people. From that 
literature we glean that wealth is not despised, it is 
rather a blessing that comes in the shape of reward to 
the pious, yet, wealth is not the one and only thing that 
conditions earthly happiness. " Eiches profit not in the 
day of wrath: but righteousness delivers from death." " 

" Weary not thyself to be rich, cease from your plans, "^^ 
" Better is little with righteousness, than great revenues 

with injustice." ^^ 
" How much better is it to get wisdom, than gold, 
Yea, to get understanding is rather to be chosen than 
silver." " 
" Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith, 
Than a house full of sacrifices (practically banquet) with 
strife." ^ 

'°Deut. 8:11-14 (D); ibid., 32:15,16 (c. 570 B. C). 
'^ Isa. 5:8 (c. 735 B. C.) ; comp. Micah 2:1, 2. 
"6:1-7. ^'Lev. chpt. 25 (H). 

"Prov. 11:14; comp. Ps. 49:6-12, 16-20. 
"= Prov. 23:4. ^^ Prov. 16:8. 

" Prov. 16 : 16. «« Prov. 17 : 1. 

5 



66 View of Life in the Old Testament 

"He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; 
Nor he that loveth abundance, with increase; this is also 
vanity." ^^ 

Children, and especially sons, were regarded as a 
great blessing from God: 

" Sons are a gift from JHVH, 
The fruit of the womb is a present. 
As arrows in the hand of a warrior 
So are the sons of the days of youth. 
Happy the man who has his quiver full thereof; 
They will not be put down, when they argue with foes be- 
fore judges." *" 

Children were not only a gift from God, bringing joy 
and happiness to the home-circle, but they were re- 
garded as future supporters of God's Kingdom*^ and 
the main support of the home.*" 

Among the Greeks in Homeric times childlessness 
was looked upon as a dire misfortune, a punishment of 
the gods,*^ and so it was among the Hebrews. The fol- 
lowing quotations will make this clear: 

" And Abram said, O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, 
seeing I go hence childless." ** 



««Eccl. 5:9. 

*°Ps. 127:3-5, 536 B. C; cf. Wellhausen: Critical notes on 
Psalms in P. B. (English transL), p. 210; also, Haupt in 
KAT, vol. Ill, 229:8; 39:50; cf. Johns Hopkins Circulars, 
July, 1894, p. 109; also, Stevens: Notes of a Critical Com- 
mentary on the Songs of the Return, Chicago, 1896, p. 162. 

*^Ps. 8:3 (later than 500 B. C). 

*=* Ps. 127:4. 5 (586 B. C.) ; comp. Addis: Documents of the 
Hexateuch, London, 1892, vol. II, p. 125. 

*^Cf. Schmidt: Gesch. d. Padagogik, Cothen, 1890, fourth 
ed., vol. I, p. 484. 

"Gen. 15:2 (JE). 



YiEW OF LiJE IX THE Old Testamext 67 

" And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, 
she envied her sister, and said unto Jacob, Give me children, 
or else I die." ^ 

"And she conceived and bare a son; and said: God has 
taken away my reproach." *=a 

" And now hear this, Voluptuous One, who sittest se- 
curely, 
Who sayest in thy heart: I, and none but me! 
I shall not sit in widowhood and know the loss of chil- 
dren." *® 

True morality and genuine goodness consist in in- 
creasing the sum of life. Respect is, therefore, en- 
joined for the life of others, and it is one's duty to save 
others from direct or indirect danger of life. If an ox 
was known to be dangerous and it gored a human being 
to death, its owner was guilty of murder.*^ Again we 
find: "When thou buildest a new house, then thou 
shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring 
not blood upon thy house, if any man fall from 
thence." ** TTherever capital punishment is decreed in 
the Mosaic Code it is, indirectly, for the preservation 

«Gen. 30:1 (E); cf. I Sam. 1:6.11 (about 740 B. C). 
*^aGen. 30:23. 

^Isa. 47:8-10 (about 546 B. C); cf. Giidemann: Das 
Judenthum, Wien. 1902, p. 11; comp. Talmud B. Moed Katon, 

27b. *j2 i62 'p^TNi |S!d'? n:55< ^'pnx ^a:' Srx ^6 

"Weep for the dead, that is for him, who dies childless; " 
also, Midrash Rabba to Genesis §45, " He who has no chil- 
dren may be compared to one who is dead." 

"Exod. 21:8 (E) ; comp. ibid., 20:13; 21: 12, 14, 20 (E); 
Lev. 24:17, 21 (H). Rashi explains (Lev. 19:16b H) 

" Do not leave your neighbor when his life is in danger." 
^Deut. 22:8 (D). 



68 View of Life in the Old Testament 

of life/'^ for even the sins, other than murder,**^ for 
which it could be incurred, were each and all of a 
character to undermine the physical life and well-being 
of the community. Thus idolatry, which offered free 
and unrestrained play to the lowest passions, as well as 
adultery, sodomy and incest are punished with death." 
That the world is very good; that mankind should 
multiply to cause happiness to others; that life is sacred 
because it is a gift of God; these are reflections of one 
who is thoroughly satisfied with life and prefers exist- 
ence to non-existence. Long life was, therefore, some- 
thing desirable, especially when the hoary head could 
point to his children and his children's children who 
were to maintain the name and the honor of the family. 

" The crown of old men are children's children 
And the glory of sons their fathers."^" 

Where life was so greatly valued, death was viewed 
as the greatest of evils, especially, premature death.^^ 

The Old Testament view of life becomes clearer when 
contrasted with the views among contemporaneous peo- 

*«aGen. 1:28a (P) ii-ii iiD nrh n»sn u^rh^ Dn&< i^n^i 

"And God blessed them; and said unto them, Be fruitful 
and multiply, and replenish the earth." 

^'b nvnn ifh " Thou shalt not murder," Exod. 20:13 (E) ; 
cf. Deut. 5:17 (D). 

*«Deut. 22:23-26 (D); Exod. 22:18 (P); Lev. 20:2.9-21; 
chpt. 18 (H). 

50 prov. 17 : 6. In Babylon, too, many prayers were directed 
to the Deity for long life and earthly immortality. Cf. Jere- 
mias: Holle u. Paradies bei d. Babyloniern, Lpzg,, 1900, p. 5. 

5^Cf. Gen. 42:38 (J); also Frey: Tod. etc., Lpzg., 1898, p. 
186 ff. 



View of Life ii^r the Old Testament 69 

pies. The unsatisfactory state of affairs mnst needs 
suggest to the thoughtful an ideal, i. e., either a de- 
terioration from, or a development into, a perfect state. 
Paganism believed in the gradual decline of mankind 
from a pristine state of innocence and bliss — the golden 
age — through successive ages, such as the silver, the 
brass, and the iron age. In keeping with this belief 
the poor old world has been on the down grade from 
the beginning, getting worse and worse as the world 
grows older. The cause of the world's gradual but 
steady decline is due, according to the reasonings of the 
heathen philosophers, not to the transgression of man, 
but to the nature that inheres in the world and to the 
antagonism existing among the gods. Man, not re- 
sponsible for the downward course of the world, has 
no means at his command to stay it. Thus, the golden 
age will never return. The myth of a primitive state 
of innocence and happiness is not peculiar to classical 
mythology; it appears, also, among Oriental peoples. 
Brinton, is authority for the statement, that the myth 
of the terrestrial Paradise is found among American 
Indians, the Pol3rQesians, and the Semites." In the 
Old Testament the golden age is not in the past but in 
the days that are to come. It places its Messianic 
glory not in any achievement of past ages, but in the 
advent of some glorious hour. There is a most re- 
markable Talmudic legend ^^ that relates how a certain 
Rabbi one day meets Elijah, the Prophet, and inquires 

"Cf. Brinton: Religions of Primitive Peoples, N. Y., 1897, 
pp. 126 ff. 

'''Talm. Sanhedrin, 98a; cf. Matt. 27:47; 17:10; also 
Geiger: Was hat Mohammed aus d. Judenthumg aufgenom- 
men, Lpzg., 1892, p. 188. 



70 View of Life ix the Old Testament 

of him the time of the coming of the Messiah. '^ Go," 
replies the Tishbite, "and ask the Messiah himself, 
yon will find him at the city-gate, and by this token 
yon will know him, that he sits among the poor and 
the sick. A man of sorrows himself, he administers 
lovingly to those who snffer, and binds np their 
wonnds." The Eabhi finds the Messiah, and asks his 
question — "When wilt thon come 0, Master?" 
" Today " is the given reply. Meeting Elijah again, 
the Eabbi exclaimed, " the Messiah has deceived me, he 
said he will come today, bnt he has not come.'^ " Nay," 
answered Elijah, "he is no deceiver, in truth \nll he 
come today — yes, today — as the Psalmist says, 'if ye 
will hearken nnto the Lord's voice.' " "We shall lose 
the meaning of this story if we do not see that, in 
speaking of the Messiah, it is speaking not merely of a 
hero who is to establish the reign of Universal peace 
by a sndden miracle, bnt of a general uplifting of the 
human race, which is to be one of the conditions neces- 
sary for the realization of the golden age.^^ 

It can be easily explained, why the Hebrews should 
have formed the exception and placed the Millennium 
in a future time, while all other peoples looked back 
upon it. Not a warlike nation, nevertheless they are 
continually involved in warfare with the tribes, dwell- 
ing on the borders of their country. If we except the 
time of Joshua, under whose leadership Canaan was 
subdued, the Hebrews had no glorious past to look back 
to. Then, most singularly, the Israelites were cursed 
with bad and unprincipled rulers, who by their misrule 

"aM. Joseph: The Ideal in Judaism, London, 1893, pp. 
132 f. 



View of Life ix the Old Testamext 71 

fostered all maimer of contention and strife at home 
and abroad. Yet, as JHA'H'S chosen people they were 
conscious of a certain superiority, and, therefore, confi- 
dently they looked forward toward the realization nf 
their hopes. This formed one of the favorite themes 
of the Prophets, as it gave encouragement to the people 
to hope for better days, it is also the burden of many 
songs in post-exilic days: 

" And I will re-establish my people Israel, and they shall 
build the waste cities, and inhabit them. . . . And I will 
plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be 
plucked up out of their land. . . . " ^* 

"And in the latter days the mountain of JHVH's house 
will be established as the highest of the mountains, and will 
be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it, 
and many peoples will set forth, and say: 

Come let us go up to the mountain of JHVH, 

To the house of the God of Jacob, 

That He may instruct us out of His precepts, 

And that we may walk in His paths; 

For from Zion goes forth instruction. 

And the word of JHVH from Jerusalem. 

Then will He judge between the nations. 

And give decision to many peoples; 

And they will beat their swords into mattocks, 

And their spears into pruning-knives; 

Nation will not lift up sword against nation, 

Neither will they learn war any more." (P. B.)^ 
"And all nations shall call you happy; for 

You shall be a delightful land. . . . " ^ 

"And it shall be, that the mountains shall drop down 
sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk. . . . But 

"Amos 8:14, 15 (about 760 B. C). 

»Isa. 2:2-4 (post-exilic); cf. Micah 4:1-4. 

"Mai. 3:12 (458 B. C). 



72 View of Life in the Old Testament 

Judah shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem from gen- 
eration to generation." " 

" Grant Thou Thyself no rest, O God, 
Be not silent, and be not quiet, O God! 
For lo! Thine enemies rage, 
And high do Thy haters carry their heads. 
They take crafty counsel against Thy people. 
And conspire together against Thy chosen ones. 

Deal with them as with the Midianites, 

To shame and to horror may they be committed forever! 
Let pallor spread over their features, and may they perish! 
And learn that Thou alone art called JHVH, 
The Most High over all the world." ^^ 

Prophets and poets are thus watching and waiting 
for the better day, which they also suppose that people 
enjoyed in the dim past. The moral lesson they draw 
is the degeneracy of their own time as compared with 
the olden days. It is this feeling of imperfection that 
kindles within them the spirit of righteous indignation. 
The prophets rebuke the people for having forgotten 
the covenant they concluded with JHVH, and in con- 
sequence of it, the promise originally attached to it 
cannot be fulfilled. " Return to JHVH, live up to 
the articles of the agreement you made with JHVH " 
and the era of universal peace and happiness will be 
ushered in. 

"Joel 3:18-21 (about 400 B. C). 

^^Ps. 83 (Maccabean about 165 B. C); compare Micah, 
chpt. 4 and 7:8-12 (586-536 B. C); Jer. 30:3 (after 586 
B. C); Ez. 34:11-17; 37:21-28 (572 B. C); Zech. 8:23 
(518 B. C); Zeph. 3:14-20 (510 B. C); Joel 3:1, 2; 3:18-21 
(400 B. C); Zech. 9:10; 14:9 (280 B. C); Psalms 18:2,3; 
29:11, 12; 62:7; 119:84-88 (all post-exilic); 94. 



View of Life in the Old Testament 73 

The story of the Garden of Eden " is more than 
likely of foreign origin. This may be accounted for 
by the fact that it made no impression upon the 
thought-life of Biblical times. Furthermore, there is 
no reference to Eden in any of the pre-exilic writings 
of the prophets.^" The references in post-exilic litera- 
ture are uncertain." In view of the emphasis given to 
the narrative in later Theologies the reserve in the 
New Testament is, likewise, significant. Yet the reason 
is patent. The prophets in ancient Israel, the apostles 
and the apocalyptic writers vie with one another in de- 
scribing the glory of renewed humanity in the coming 
Kingdom of God. Here, there is no place for tears 
over the remote past, the dawn of the great day of 
peace and righteousness is the hope and praj^er of the 
hour. 

The Optimism of the ancient Hebrews was due not 
only to the belief that God is the Creator, but that He 
also controls all things for the special happiness of His 
chosen people : 

" For thou art sacred to thy God, JHVH; 
The Lord, thy God, has chosen thee to be a peculiar peo- 
ple unto Himself, out of all peoples that are upon 
the face of the earth." ''^ 

There are many other references to Israel as the 
chosen people, and to JHVH as Israel's special Friend 

''Vide, Excursus: "Eden." 

^ Joel 2:3, often quoted to show that the garden of Eden 
is mentioned in pre-exilic literature, but Joel is post-exilic 
about 400 B. C. 

°^Ez. 28:13; 31:16, 18; 36:35; Isa. 51:3. 

«^Deut. 7:6 (D); comp. Exod. 6:6-8 (P); Isa. 65:19-25; 
Ps. 103 (late). 



74 View of Life in the Old Testament 

and Protector.® The joy of life, an instinctive desire 
of every individual, was deepened and strengthened by 
the national consciousness that Israel is God's chosen 
people." It was dne to this optimistic feeling that the 
solidarity of the nation remained intact for so man]^ 
centuries. As a matter of fact, the prophets in Israel, 
even in their most nniversalistic visions, never lost sight 
of the national existence of Israel. Prof. Toy correctly 
states,®'' "that religions vigor and religions pride were 
the resultant of the intimate relations between JHYH 
and His people. On the one hand, it brought Ood in 
close touch with every unit of the nation, but, on the 
other hand, the contrast between the righteous Israel 
and the ungodly heathens generated not merely a deep- 
seated particularism, but also a marked sense of reli- 
gious superiority.'' 

Pfleiderer makes similar observations;** he says: 

" Among the Jews the national Egoism and contempt 

for the Gentiles were even harsher than the disdain 

which prevailed among the Gentiles for the Barbarians, 

because the national consciousness was heightened by 

««Cf. Hosea 13:14 (740 B. C.) ; Isa. 5:7 (740 B. C.) ; Micah 
6:3-5 (650 B. C); Jer. 1:19; 15:19-21 (628 B. C); Ps. 90 
(pre-exilic) ; Jer. 50:11, 17-20; 51:50 (597 B. C.) ; Deut. 32: 
43; 33:29 (Dt); I Sam. 12:22 (Dt); Ps. 95 (540 B. C); Isa. 
49:3-8; 52:9; 54:5-10; 61:6 (538 B. C); Psalms 121, 124 
(536 B. C); Isa. 40:10, 11; 41:8-10, 17; 43:1-19; 44:1-5; 
45:4; 48:17-21 (546-539 B. C); Neh. 4:14; 9:9-16 (445 B. 
C); Psalms 78; 18:50; 20:6-8; 23:1-6; 68:5, 16 (400 B. C); 
Joel 2:25-27 (400 B. C); Psalms 149:4; 44:1-8 (very late). 

^*Cf. Pliimacher: D. Pessimismus, p. 37. 

^ Judaism and Christianity, p. 72. 

^^" Essence of Christianity" in New World, Sept., 1892, 
pp. 401 fC. 



View of Life in the Old Testament 75 

that of their religious peculiarity and superiority.*' 
Whenever any incongruity appeared between reality 
and the belief, that they, the Israelites, were especially 
favored by Providence, refuge was taken in the hope 
of the establishment of a D''Di^' n^:j'?n '' A Kingdom of 
Heaven," which hope plays an important part in the 
life of the nation. Not only did Israel deserve divine 
favor in the future, if not now, by reason of its superior 
righteousness and its knowledge of the true God, but 
God Himself was pledged, for His own sake, to secure 
Israel's triumph and prosperity. God's honor was at 
stake among the heathen peoples, therefore, JHYH 
would be magnified in the glory of His people: 
" Be triumphant, O heavens, JHVH has finished His task. 

For JHVH has redeemed Jacob 
And glorifies Himself in Israel." " 

" But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, 
Offspring of Abraham, my friend. 
Thou, whom I fetched from the ends of the earth, and 

called from its remotest parts, 
To whom I said: My servant art thou, I have chosen and 

have not rejected thee; 
Fear not, for I am with thee; cast no look of terror, for I 

am thy God. 
I strengthen thee, yea, I help thee ; yea, I uphold thee with 

my triumphant right hand. 
Behold, all who were enraged at thee will be ashamed and 

confounded. 
The men who contended with thee will become nought 

and perish." ^ 



«^Isa. 44:23 (546 B. C); comp. ibid., 41:21; 43:28b; 45: 
6, 7 (546 B. C.) ; also Micah 7:20 (536 B. C.) ; Mai. 3:6 (458 
B. C); Ps. 105:8 ff (400 B. C). 

•^Isa. 41:8-11 (546 B. C). 



76 View of Life in the Old Testament 

During the Maccabean struggle (167-130 B. C.) Israel 
felt that its heroic stand for JHYH and its attachment 
to the Law, were offered up as a sacrifice to the cause 
of JHVH, who, therefore, is entreated to \York speedy 
deliverance, as He was losing in the estimation of the 
heathen. If sins still preclude Israel's redemption, 
then let JHVH cancel them for His name's sake. Thus 
we read in two of the Maccabean Psalms: 

" Not to us, O JHVH, not to us. 

But to Thy Name, give glory. 

Because of Thy goodness, because of Thy faithfulness. 

Why should the heathen say: 

Where is that God of theirs? "«^ 
" Nay, for thy sake are we continually killed off. 

We are treated like sheep to be slaughtered. 

Arise! why dost Thou slumber, O Lord. 

Awake! do not forever discard us." ™ 

The nations hostile to Israel were regarded as being 
hostile to JHYH. Thus we read in the Mechilta: 

"He who rises up against Israel rises up against God; 
hence the cause of Israel is the cause of God, their ally is 
His too." ^"a 

That the prevailing temper of the Old Testament is 
optimistic has been shown, and at the same time, that 
this is largely the result of the faith that the world, in 

^Ps. 115; cf. Fiirst: D. Heilige Schrift, note on Ps. 115, 
where 144 B. C. is the date given; cf. Wellhausen's crit. 
notes on Psalms in P. B. in loc. (Engl, transl.). 

^"44:22, 23; cf. Wellhausen's crit. notes on Psalms in P. B. 
in loc. (Engl, transl.), where Psalm is assigned to Macca- 
bean period; Kautzsch, Cornill, Cheyne and Driver favor 
the same date. 

^"aCf. Weiss: Mechilta, Wien, 1865, p. 39; Rashi to Talm. 
Chulin, 20a. 



View of Life ijs^ the Old Testament 77 

general, and Israel, in particular, are under the imme- 
diate Providence of JHVH.'^ Yet strains of pessimistic 
complaints are not wholly absent from the Old Testa- 
ment. The earliest pessimistic note is struck in those 
parts of the Hexateuch that are from the pen of the 
Jahvist/^ After long experience he concludes that evil 
is increased by man's progress, that primitive condi- 
tions and a simple civilization are favorable for the 
development of the moral man. Every onward move- 
ment, or rather every change, he deprecates as being 
in opposition to the Creator's original plan." To show 
the Pessimism of the Jahvist,^^^ I need only refer to 
the second account of creation.^* While the first ac- 
count of creation, written about three centuries later, 
closes with God's bestowal of blessing upon the seventh 
day, " God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, 
for He rested on the seventh day from all His work He 
had made," " the second account concludes with the 
expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden 
for having eaten " from the tree of knowledge of good 
and evil." But being exiled from the garden was not 
their only punishment.^''* The ground and the animal 
world were cursed; trouble and sorrow, henceforth, 

" Cf . Pliimaclier : D. Pessimismus, p. 37, 

" Rev. C. J. Ball in his crit. notes to Gen. in Heb. text of 
P. B. places P c. 850 B. C; J- c. 650 B. C; cf. also Cornill 
Einl. i. d. A. T. Freiburg i. B., 1896, pp. 42 fC; Budde: Die 
biblische Urgeschichte, 1883. 

^3 Gen. 4:16ff (P) ; ibid., 11: Iff (P). 

"a-Cf. Winckler: Gesch. Israels, Lpzg., 1895, vol. I, pp. 
78-113. 

" Gen. 2 : 4b to 3 : 24. " Gen. 2 : 3. 

"aCf. Fritzscbe: "Schopenhauer u. d. pess. Ziige in 
A T " in Protest. Kirchenzeitung, 1894, No. 10, p. 227. 



78 YiEw OF Life in the Old Testament 

were to be the lot of man; woman is to bear children 
with pain/^ Later, Cain the nomadic shepherd be- 
comes the first fratricide. Cain slays Abel who tills 
the soil, an occupation that binds him to a settled habi- 
tation, and is the second step in civilization. Then, in 
the time of Noah, mankind is steeped in sin, and the 
deluge is sent to destroy all sentient life. Because men 
desire to live together and plan, for that purpose, the 
building of a high tower, JHYH is displeased and pun- 
ishes them in such a manner that they are obliged to 
scatter and live separated from one another. 

In this connection it may be well to call attention to 
a passage, often referred to as an indication of the 
pessimistic tendency of Talmudical Judaism; the pas- 
sage is a commentary upon the first account of creation 
in Genesis. In Midrash Eabboth " we read that in the 
scroll of the Law of Eabbi Meir, who lived during the 
second Christian century, the words nxD aitO"n:ni "be- 
hold, it was very good " were altered to read nio njm 
ni» "behold, it was good to die." Further on we 
read his comment on li^D 2)D " very good " ni^n r\i6^ nt 
" this means the angel of death." ^* 

Another striking pessimistic utterance is found in 
the Talmud Jerushalmi where the world is compared to 
the night." 

■'^ The pain of childbirth was proverbial among the He- 
brews as the most severe; comp. Micah 4:9 ff; Ez. 13:13; 
Isa. 13:8. 

" To Gen., chpt. 9. 

'«Cf. Blumenthal: Rabbi Mei'r, Frankfurt a. M., 1888: 
Excursus " D. Thoraexemplar; " see also n. 3 to p. 24; n. 2 
top. 18; also Delitzsch: Gen., vol. I, p. 104. 

^«>Chagigah 2:1: n^>"?^ HDHK^ HTH rh\V2 ^^'h rhhn ''^h 



View of Life in the Old T:estament 79 

But the Jahvist is not the only one who gives voice 
to pessimistic sentiments. The prophets, too, have 
hours of despair and weariness. The more they ponder 
upon the degeneracy of the rulers and of the people, 
the greater the moral indignation that causes dissatis- 
faction with the present. At times, they become con- 
scious of their weakness and of their utter powerless- 
ness to cope with evil and intrigue. In sheer despair 
Elijah, who was fleeing from Jezebel and had found 
shelter in the desert of Horeb, entreats God to take 
his life.*" Jeremiah curses the day on which he saw 
the light of day.*^ Similarly, the second Isajah: 

"Hark! a voice says: Proclaim! and I say: 
What shall I proclaim? 

All flesh is grass, and all the strength thereof like the 
flowers of the field." ^^ 

But it is only for the moment that the prophet of 
the exile gives way to his feeling of impotence. He 
regains his strength and looks more confidently into 
the future, even the glory of the Babylonian Empire 
will not last forever for JHVH is a God of justice and 
He loves His chosen people.*^ When Jerusalem is deso- 
late, the people in exile, and the national existence 
crushed, the voice of prophecy speaks out more confi- 
dently, keeping aglow the hope of repatriation in the 

«»I K. 19:4b (c. 850 B. C). 

«^ 20: 14-18 (586 B. C.) ; ibid., 22:10. 

"40:6 (546 B. C); comp. ibid., 2:22 (740 B. C); in LXX 
this sentence is omitted. 

^ Aber dieser Optimismus (der Propheten) ist nicht flach, 
nein er hat den Pessimismus in sich aufgenommen und iiber- 
wunden. Fritzsche i. Prot. Kirchenz., 1894, No. 11. 



80 View of Life ix the Old Testament 

hearts of the exiles. The Pessimism of the prophets is 
overcome by the faith they had in the immortality of 
the Israelitic natioii. Numerous references are found 
in the Book of Job ^ expressive of the misery and 
weariness of human existence.**^ Job curses the day on 
which he was bom,^ the summons of the angel of death 
would come as a veritable blessing to him.*^ The 
powers of nature and the wonders of creation lead him 
to conclude that it is useless for man to oppose the 
Creator.^^ In the management of the affairs of men 
he sees evil-doers taking a leading part and being suc- 
cessful.^ Finally, he likens the life of man to that of 
the slave.^^ 

The psalms, though optimistic in thought and ten- 
dency, hold many pessimistic sentiments. The nine- 
tieth Psalm ascribed to Moses, though much later, yet, 
possibly, pre-exilic, is permeated with life-weariness. 
Man is but a mote creeping on the dome of creation 
compared with the eternity and might of God. Man's 
days are few, soon his body crumbles into dust, in spite 

«* 521-485 B. C. 

8% Whenever R. Jochanan had finished reading Job, he 
used to say: " The end of man is death, the end of the ani- 
mal is to he slaughtered " (Talm. Berachoth, p. 17a) ; cf. 
also Friedrich Delitzsch (Das B. Hiob., Lpzg., 1902), who 
speaks of poetical part as " Das Gedicht Job oder Das 
Hohelied d. Pessimismus." 

^ Job 3:3-26. «« Job 6:8-11. 

«^ Job 9:1-11; ibid., 14:1; 17:19, 21; comp. Ps. 139. 

^ Job 9:21, 22; comp ibid., 10:20, 21; 14:6, 7. 

^Job. 7:1, 2 (polemical interpolation); cf. Siegfried's 
critical notes on Heb. text in P. B., ad locum. 



View of Life m the Old Testament 81 

of all the toil and moil; life spells emptiness."" The 
Psalmist, finally, closes his sombre meditations with a 
prayer: 

" The generation of men is ever shifting; 
They are like the herb which springs anew. 
Which shoots up in the morning and thrives, 
And in the evening it fades and withers; 
Under Thy displeasure we perish, 
Under Thine anger are we henumhed. 
Thou placest our sins before Thee, 
Our secretest act in the light of Thy face; 
Under Thy fury all our days vanish. 
We bring our years to an end like a thought. 
Our life lasts seventy years, 
Or, at the most, eighty, 
And its unrest is toil and emptiness; 
For it passes away swiftly, and we take our flight." 

" Give us joy for as long as Thou hast given us affliction. 
For as many years of misfortune as we have lived 
through." (P. B.) 

Of similar character is the thirty-ninth Psalm; here, 
too, the Psalmist's resignation borders closely on de- 
spair.'' 

In the twenty-second Psalm the Pessimism that re- 
sults from excessive sorrow and suffering finds voice in 
the following plaint: "'' 

" My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? 
Far aloof from mine invocation, from my wailing entreaty. 



'°Cf. Wellhausen: Skizzen u. Vorarbeiten, Berl., 1899 Ft 
VI, p. 181. 

®' Cf. Wellhausen: Critical notes on Psalms in P. B. (Engl, 
transl.) (Ps. 39); also, Cheyne: Job and Solomon, 1887 
pp. 83 ff. 

'' 536 B. C. 
G 



82 View of Life in the Old Testament 

By day do I ^^a call, O my God, yet Thou dost not an- 
swer. 
And by night do I find me no rest." *' 

But the poet leads gradually from sorrow to trust in 
JHVH, which feeling ever exerts itself among the 
writers of the Old Testament: 

" Yet, Thou art He who delivered me out of the lap of my 
mother. 

On Thy charge was I thrown from the hour of my birth, 
From my mother's lap onward, Thou art my God." ®* 

In the eighty-eighth Psalm that Fritzsche has 
called ^' " eine schwermiithige Nocturne in Moll " — the 
pall never lifts. The sorrows of Sheol and the anguish 
and terror of the soul furnish the material for the 
poef s muse."^ 

The conception of the deterioration of the world, 
which is responsible for the Pessimism of the Jahvist in 

®2a The " I " in the Psalms does not voice the sentiment 
of the individual, but that of the nation; cf. Smend: ZATW, 
1888, pp. 49-147; Stekhoven: ZAW, 1889, pp. 131-135; Staerk, 
ZAW, 1892, pp. 146-149; W. R. Smith: OTJC^ 1892, p. 176; 
Cheyne: Origin of Ps., 1891, pp. 258 ff; Rahlfs: *jr and m 
in d. Psalmen, 1892, p. 82; Driver: Introd., 6th ed., pp. 
389 f ; Bar: Individual und Gemeinde psalmen, Marburg, 
1894; Coblenz: Uber das betende Ich in d. Psalmen, Frank- 
furt, 1897; H. Roy: Die Volksgemeinde und die Gemeinde 
der Frommen im Psalter, Gnadau, 1897; Leimdorfer: Das 
Psalter-Ego in den Ich Psalmen, Hamburg, 1898. 

^2 22: 1,2. «*22:9, 10. 

®^ " Schopenhauer und die pess. Ziige. im. A T " in 
Protest. Kirchenzeitung, 1894, No. 13, p. 292; Ps. 88 (about 
536 B. C). 

^"^ Pessimistic passages in Psalms: 51:5 (545 B. C); 89: 
47, 48; 103:15, 16; 144:3, 4 (167 B. C); 102:11 (167 B. C). 



View of Life ix the Old Testamext 83 

the early chapters of Genesis/' inspired Hesiod's de- 
scription of the ages ever becoming worse/' and also 
finds an echo in the Book of Daniel.^ The author of 
Daniel, too, discerns a gradual deterioration of the 
world— the first kingdom is of gold; the second of 
silver; the third of brass; the fourth an incoherent 
combination of iron and clay.'"" The difference be- 
tween the views of Hesiod and Daniel is a striking one, 
due to the one being a Greek and the other a Jew. 
While Hesiod is a confirmed Pessimist, seeing nothing 
but darkness and oblivion ahead of him, Daniel dreams 
of God's Kingdom, which will rise after the destruction 
of the fourth kingdom. Daniel discerns in all the 
changes the workings of Providence; here, too, he sur- 
passes Ecclesiastes,''' who sees in the world around him 
a never-ceasing, aimless flux: 
" What profit has man of all his toil wherewith he wearies 

himself under the sun? 
One generation passes away and another comes; the earth 

alone abides forever. 
The sun rises and the sun goes down and panting hastens 

back to his place where he rose. 
The wind sweeps toward the south and veers round to the 

north, whirling about everlastingly: and back to 

his circuits returns the wind. 
All rivers flow into the sea; yet the sea is not full, whence 

the rivers take their source, thither they return 

again. 



"Gen. 2:4b, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22-25; 3:1-19, 21; 6:3- 
3:23; 4:1, 2b, 16b, 17, 18-21, 22, 23-24; 6:1, 2, 4; 10:9; 11- 
1-9; 9:20, 21, 22, 23-25, 26, 27. 

«« Hesiod lived about 800 B. C. " Five Ages of the World 
in the Work and Days," London, 1856; compare Charles: 
Doctrines of a Future Life, London, 1899, p. 140. 

'^(164 B. C.) ^"0 2:31-46. ^°M37-4 B. C.) 



84 View of Life in the Old Testament 

The all is in a never-ceasing whirl, 

No man can utter it in words; 

Rest is not vouchsafed to the eye from seeing, 

Nor unto the ear from hearing.^"^ 

The thing that has been is the same that shall be, and 

what befell is the same that shall come to pass, and 

there is no new thing under the sun. 
If naught there be whereof one would say, 'Lo, this is 

new! ' — it was erstwhile in the eternities that were 

before us. 
There is no memory of those that were; neither shall 

there be any remembrance of them that are to 

come, among their posterity." ^"^ 

That a life without any aim and purpose should lead 
Ecclesiastes to exalt death and praise it as preferable 
to life is but natural: " Wherefore I praised the dead 
that have been long dead more than the living that are 
yet alive ^'(4:2). A similar thought is voiced in (7b) : 
" The day of death (is better) than the day of one's 
birth." The school of Sham.mai, which objected to 
having Ecclesiastes placed in the Canon, based its ob- 
jection upon some passages in Ecclesiastes, which, ap- 
parently, were not only at variance with the teachings 
of Scriptures, but also seemed to contradict one an- 
other. Thus, in 4: 2 the dead are praised more than 
the living, while in 9:4 the opposite view is espoused: 
" Verily a living dog is better than a dead lion.'' Prof. 
Haupt has pointed out that 9:4 is an interpolation, 
therefore Ecclesiastes did not contradict himself.^"** 

^"^Cf. Schopenhauer: Griesb. ed., vol. II, p. 295. 

"^Cf. Dillon: The Skeptics of the O. T., London, 1895 
(The Speaker), p. 241. 

^"'aCf. Haupt: "The Bk. of Eccl." in Oriental Studies, p. 
264, n. 4; also Hitzig: Der Prediger Salome's (Nowack), 
2d ed., Lpzg., 1883, p. 279. 



View of Life in the Old Testament 85 

Daniel typifies the firm believer in the development 
of the world to an ever higher state of ethics; Ecclesi- 
astes typifies the despairing Pessimist who denies prog- 
ress and regards the present as merely an echo of the 
past/*^^ The experiences of life that in Job lead to a 
problem/"* in Ecclesiastes are crystallized into a pessi- 
mistic view of existence. Thus, not only the incongru- 
ity between happiness and merit, but life itself needs 
justification: " Then I praised the dead who died 
long since, as happier than the quick who are yet alive, 
but luckier than both, him who is still unborn, who has 
not yet witnessed the evil doings under the sun." ^°' 
Ecclesiastes sees the world as cold and hard. The op- 
timistic creed, common to the Old Testament, that in 
the end everything will be for the best, which is the 
natural creed of man, is not found in Ecclesiastes. We 
miss a moral vivifying ideal, nothing brightens up the 
dark and cheerless horizon. His religion has little of 
Jewish distinctiveness. The election of Israel, the 
sanctuary, and JHVffS name, are not referred to, 
nor does he touch upon Israel's future. He looks out 
upon the world, through spectacles darkened by pre- 
judice. He draws conclusions from his subjective ex- 
perience. 

The narrowness of such procedure mu.st, naturally, 
lead him to make observations that are one-sided and 
wholly inadequate for a philosophy of life.^°° What 

103b (1; 9) "The thing that has been is the same that 
shall be . . . and there is no new thing under the 
sun; " cf. Schopenhauer: Griesb. ed., vol. II, pp. 214 ff. 

"*Chpt. 21. 10=4:2, 3. 

"•»Cf. Kostlin: Theol. Studien aus Wiirtemberg, 1882, 
pp. 132 ff. 



86 YiEw OF Life ix the Old Testament 

seems to be the chief cause for the Pessimism of Eccle- 
siastes is the absence of Providence, or rather, the 
denial of it in the sense of an ethical government. 

"All things have I witnessed in my vain days; there are 
just men who perish through their righteousness, and there 
are wicked men who prolong their lives by means of their 
iniquity." "' 

"Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the 
swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, 
nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of 
skill; but time and chance overtake them all." ^°^ 

" There is a vanity which is done upon the earth : to 
righteous men that happens which should befall wrong- 
doers; and that betides criminals which should fall to the 
lot of the upright." ^°^ 

" For that which befalleth men befalleth beasts, and the 
same befalls them all; as these die even so die those, and 
the selfsame breath have they all, nor is there any pre-emi- 
nence of man above beast; for all is nothingness." "° 

"What profit has man from all the toil he does under 
the sun." ^^ 

God, in the opinion of Ecclesiastes, takes no active 
and sympathetic interest in human concerns, for He 
is too far removed from things terrestrial. Good and 
wicked men alike are left nncared for. There is no 
reward for which the righteous may hope; no punish- 
ment the bad need fear. While in the other Biblical 
Books the suffering of the godless is punishment for 
their sins,^ and the woes of the pious a test and trial 
of their faith,"^' in Ecclesiastes, suffering has no con- 
nection at all with God^s wrath or love; it is simply 

"^7:15. ^<«9:11. ^°»8:14. 

i^=Ps. 38:2; Job 8:8-19. "' Ps. 44 (167 B. C). 



View of Life ix the Old Testa:mext 87 

the inevitable and unaToidable outcome of the misery 
of life. 

And yet. Ecclesiastes is not a Pessimist in the mod- 
em acceptation of that term. Unlike the modern Pes- 
simist, he nowhere makes assertion that this is the 
worst of all possible worlds.""* ^N'or do we detect in 
Ecclesiastes the plaint of modern Pessimism that the 
world is speedily going to rain and to destruction, or a 
denial of the world (TTeltYerneinimg).^' Ecclesiastes 
preaches the Gospel of work. If there be no absolute 
good, Ecclesiastes suggests that one should seek satis- 
faction in relative good, i. e. in work. 
" Whatever thy hand finds to do, do it with might. ..." "^ 

The hopeless Pessimism of the modem school evinces 
itself in its estimate of work. " Work is an evil," says 
Hartmann, "no matter how beneficial its results may 
prove to be to the worker, to mankind and to human 

»J UT 

progress. 

Ecclesiastes has no system of philosophy. His are 
the musings of one who met many disappointments, 
and who, having no faith in Providence, expects no 
improvement in his future condition. Cheerless is 
the view he holds of the future life and the state of 

"*Cf. Schopenhauer, vol. II, p. 687. 

"'Cf. Bickell: Der Prediger iiber den Wert des Daseins, 
1884, p. 35. 

"•9:10: rim ^nb? nib^i?^ -^n; j<m"n if^ ?3 

"^Cf. Hartmann: Phil, des Unbewussten: "Die Arbeit ist 
fiir den, der arbeiten muss ein Ijbel, mag sie auch in ihren 
Folgen fiir ihn selbst, wie fiir die Menschheit und den 
Fortschritt in ihrer Entwickelung noch so segensreich sein." 
Comp. Schweinburg: Jiidische Pessimisten, Wien, 1885, p. 39. 



88 View of Life ix the Old Testament 

the dead.^ Indeed, he could not have written the 
book, had he believed in a personal immortality: "' 

"Who can tell whether the spirit of the sons of men 
ascends upwards, and the spirit of the beasts descends down- 
wards? " "° 

The Massorites intended by their vocalization to give 
that turn to the passage which would rid it of scepti- 
cism. The " in D7^«t^ and in ni^n they punctuated not 
as the article, but as an interrogative particle."^ It may 
be interesting to note that the passage in Ecclesiastes: 

" The dust shall return to the earth (to become) what it 
was, but the spirit will return to God who gave it" (12:7), 
is a theological gloss.^ 

In spite of all this despair on the part of Ecclesiastes, 
he is not led to a denial of God's existence, as Schopen- 
hauer, Hartmann, and Omar EZhLayyam."^'^ j^or does he 
accept the Pantheistic alternative that denies to God 

"^Cf. "Wright: Ecclesiastes, London, 1883, p. 191. 

"»Cf. Luzzatto in IDnj I'^V III, p. 17; also Krochmal 
in jDTn ^3113 miD (Lemberg, 1863, p. 121), who claim 
that Koheleth denies immortality; cf. also Gl-eiger: Das Ju- 
denthum und seine Geschichte (Breslau, 1864, p. 92), and 
Gass: Optimismus und Pessimismus, Berlin, 1876, p. 12. 

^2°Cf. Haupt: "The Book of Ecclesiastes," in Oriental 
Studies, p. 248. 

(3:21) yi^h n^^b 5<^•^ 
^^ Similarly in Sept. Targ. Peshito. Vulg.; cf. Geiger: 

Urschrift, Breslau, 1857, p. 175; also Hitzig: Der Prediger 

Salomo's, Lpzg., 1883, p. 234. 
"^Cf. Haupt: "The Bk. of Eccl.," in Oriental Stuaies, p. 

263. 
"^ Cf. E. Fitzgerald: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 4th ed., 

N. Y., 1900 (XVI, XXIV, XXV, XLVIII, LXIII, LXXIV). 



View of Life ix the Old Testament 89 

freedom of will and makes Him act from necessity."^ 
He believes in God. as the Creator^ and does not at- 
tempt to improve the Deity out of existence. He sees 
God in the law and order that permeates the IJni- 



"^Cf. White: Spinoza's Ethics, N. Y., 1883, p. 32; also 
Elwes: The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, London, 
1891, Tol. II, p. 70. 

"* Pessimistic passages in Ecclesiastes : 1:2-11, 14, 17, 18; 
2:11, 15-17, 22, 23; 3:9, 18-21; 4:3, 4; 5:14, 15, 20 (to 14 
comp. Job 21 and Ecclus. 40:1); 6:3-9, 11, 12; 7:1b, 2; 8:14; 
9:2-6; 10:14; 11:8. 



CHAPTEE y 
Rewakd and Punishment in the Old Testament 

The Mosaic Code is peculiarly practical in charac- 
ter, contemplating the weal of the commonwealth and 
the welfare of its citizens. The transgression of divine 
ordinances, embodied in the code, is to be followed by- 
earthly misfortune and physical sufferings ; ^ while obe- 
dience is rewarded with happiness in this life. In the 
one case one must expect disease, death, swarms of lo- 
custs, barrenness of soil, and, ultimately, exile; in the 
other, rich harvests, plentitude, tranquillity, longevity, 
and a numerous progeny. Post-mortal gratifications, 
as a reward for righteousness and piety, are not prom- 
ised. As the mental and moral horizons became more 
expanded, the teachings, touching upon reward and 
punishment, became the source of much anxiety and 
doubt, and, here, we must look for the germinal seed 
of Pessimism. So long as the patriarchal and na- 
tional solidarity remained unassailed, people never 
questioned the old teachings concerning reward and 
punishment. But, later, when the solidarity of the 
nation was seriously threatened, by a long succession 
of misfortunes, reward and punishment became a ser- 
ious problem. 

The solidarity of the nation, of such great moment 

^"Leiden sind eine Folge der Siinde; " cf. Goitein: Der 
Optimismus u. Pessimismus, Berl., 1890, p. 1. 



92 ReWAED and PmnSHMENT 

for the political and religious life of the ancient He- 
brews, stands in close relation to the doctrine of reward 
and punishment. Whether in religious or secular af- 
fairs, the habit of the old world was to think much of 
the community and little of the individual. First of 
all it is to be noted, says Robertson Smith : ^ " that 
the frame of mind in which men are well pleased with 
themselves, with their gods, and with the world, could 
not have dominated antique religion, as it did, unless 
religion had been essentially the affair of the commun- 
ity rather than that of the individual. It was not the 
business of the gods of heathenism to watch by a series 
of special providences over the welfare of every indi- 
vidual. The benefits which were expected from the 
gods were of a public character, affecting the whole 
community. Fruitful season, increase of flock, and suc- 
cess in war, all so essential to ancient life, were, wholly, 
the business of the community. 

Their ideal of life was based upon the social idea: ^ 
first the home with its patriarchal regime, and later the 
home broadening out into the wider community of the 
Theocracy. The Hebrew idea of the relation of the 
individual to the community came near the Hellenic 
idea of the relation of the citizen to the State." 

The relation of God to each human soul is far less 
marked in the writings of the prophets than in the 
so-called Khokma literature and in the Psalms. While 
in the New Testament the community gradually re- 

2 Rel. of the Semites, 1894, p. 258. 

'Cf. Causse: Les Socialisme des Prophetes, Montauban, 
1900, pp. 8 ff. 



IN THE Old Testament 93 

cedes behind the individual, in the Old Testament the 
individual is lost in the community. It is the nation 
that is of paramount significance, not the single units. 
For Israel's continuance as a Theocracy it is requisite 
that there should be a continuity of self-identity from 
age to age. There is, indeed, something sublime in 
that complete effacement of personal interests, often- 
times of ambitions, in those of the community. The 
solidarity of the nation is so real that it carries with 
it the consequences that are most important for they 
suggest many a moral problem. 

In keeping with the traditional solidarity of the 
family, of the tribe, and of the nation, there was a 
universally accepted theory of joint and several respon- 
sibility for sin. Thus retributive judgment might fall 
upon the subject for the sin of the king; on the son 
for the sin of the father; on the whole nation for the 
sin of a single individual. Furthermore, upon the 
assumed solidarity of the family, the city, and the 
nation, the Deity is supposed to act frequently in the 
earliest periods; for each family, clan and people had 
its own god or gods, who cared for the individual only 
as a member of the broader social organization. The 
Priestly-Code recognizes the solidarity of the nation 
by the institution of the sin-offering brought by the 
High-Priest, as the representative of the whole people, 
on Yom-Kippur, the Day of Atonement.* 

In the story of Sodom, ten good men would have 
sufficed to secure forgiveness for the inhabitants of the 

*Lev., chpt. 16 (H); comp. Neh. 10:34. 



94 Eewakd and Punishment 

doomed twin-cities." For the sins of King Manasseh * 
captivity is predicted for the whole people/ Later this 
conception was extended so as to include the dead. 
The dead were believed to exercise an influence upon 
those they left behind. The living were to be the 
recipients of the rewards and punishments of the dead. 
Schechter states * that the most important passage in 
Rabbinical literature relating to the solution of the 
problem^ how to reconcile the lot with the life of man, 
is the following: With reference to Exodus 33: 13 
Rabbi Jochanan ben Saccai said, that among other 

5 Gen. 18:16-33 (J). 

® Manasseh followed Hezekiah and ruled from 694-639. 
His reign marks a time of reaction from the beneficent rule 
of his predecessor. Jerusalem became the hospitable cen- 
tre of the gods of Syria. His own son passed through the 
fire of Moloch (H K. 21:1-9). 

^Cf. Joshua 7:11 (E) ; also ibid., 22:20 (P), where Achan 
takes forbidden spoil and the people are punished; also II 
Sam. 21:1, 9, where the plague is due to Saul's cruelty 
against the Gibeonites, and the execution of Saul's sons 
stays the plague; also II Sam. 12:16-19, where David sins 
and his child dies for his sin; also II K., chpt. 16, where 
Ahaz (739-723 B. C.) introduces the Moloch-worship, later 
he repents and the punishment is postponed for his sons; 
compare Isa. 39:7; also II Chron. 28:19. Such was the in- 
exorable law of JHVH as found in the Decalogue: "For I 
JHVH, your God, am a zealous God, visiting the iniquity of 
the fathers upon the children ..." (Exod. 20:6 E). 
Similarly we read in Aboth (Mishnah V: 12-15), "Pestilence 
comes into the world for the capital crimes mentioned in 
the Torah . . . the sword comes upon the world for the 
suppression of judgment . . . Captivity comes for 
strange worship, incest, shedding of blood." Cf. also Toy's 
crit. notes on Ezekiel in P. B. (Engl, transl.), p. 122, n. 14. 

* Studies in Judaism, Phila., 1896, p. 218. 



IN THE Old Testament 95 

things, Moses also asked God to explain to him the 
method of His Providence, a request that was granted 
him. He asked God, "Why are there righteous peo- 
ple who are prosperous, and righteous people who suf- 
fer; wicked who are prosperous, and wicked who suf- 
fer? " The answer given to Moses v/as, that the pros- 
perity of the wicked, and the suffering of the righteous 
are a result of the conduct of their ancestors, the for- 
mer heing the descendants of righteous parents and 
enjoying their merits, whilst the latter coming from 
a bad stock suffer for the sins of those to whom they 
owe their existence/ 

In the course of time the elementary notions of jus- 
tice seemed to cause a conflict with the old ideas con- 
cerning reward and punishment. For the nation was 
growing weary and saddened under most cruel oppres- 
sion. The weight of the father's sins became an un- 
endurable burden: While the author of Lamentations 
(570 B. C.) patiently enough says: 

" Our fathers sinned, and are not; 
And we have borne their iniquities." ^° 

The author of the Maccabean psalm (169 B. C.) boldly 
exclaims: 

" Remember not against us the sins of our forefathers. 

May Thy compassion soon come to meet us. 

For deep is our misery." ^^ 

Individualism was groping its way, awakening even 
in its denial. The prophets of the eighth century do 
not, as yet, raise the question of individualism. Col- 

'Talm. Berachoth, 7a. The opposite is found in Talm. 
Sanhedrin, 104a, " The father is rewarded for his son, but 
not the son for the father." 

"5:7. "79:8. 



96 Eewakd and Punishment 

lective punishment and collective guilt still loom large 
on their mental and moral horizon. Yet, even Amos " 
draws a distinction between the rich cruel oppressors 
and the suffering poor, though he does not indicate in 
how far the latter would escape the catastrophe he saw 
approaching. Ezekiel'^ is the first of the prophets 
who probes deeper and clearly discusses the religious 
difficulties in the way of social solidarity. Prof. Toy 
correctly states " that Ezekiel lays down the rule of 
absolute individual responsibility. The announcements 
of the principle (in Deut. 24: 16, Jeremiah and Eze- 
kiel) marks an epoch in Israelitish ethical develop- 
ment. Similarly, Wellhausen : ^^ " Ezekiel promises the 
resurrection of the people. In the midst of these 
oracles a section is to be found from which we can see 
that Ezekiel conceived his task of encouraging the 
exiles in still another and quite different manner. The 
people were dead, and could only be awakened to life 
by a miracle from JHYH. But individuals still lived.^^ 
In a very characteristic way Ezekiel now applies indi- 
vidualism as a principle of comfort. " His father, be- 
cause he practiced oppression and committed pillage 
and did what was not good among his people, behold, 
he died for his iniquity. But ye say: Why should 
the son not bear the consequences of his father's ini- 
quity? If the son execute justice and righteousness, 
keep all my statutes and do them, he shall live. The 
person who sins — he shall die. A son shall not bear 

"Amos (760 B. C); cf. chpt. 6:1-9. 
" (590 B. C.) 

"Cf. Toy's critical notes on Ez. (Engl, transl.) in P. B., 
p. 130, note 2. 
^= " Babylonian Exile" in New World, Dec, 1893, p. 605. 



IN THE Old Testament 97 

the consequences of his father's iniquity, and a father 
shall not bear the consequences of his son's iniquity: 
The righteousness of the righteous shall be put down 
to his own account, and the wickedness of the wicked 
to his own account." "^ I hold with Schechter " that 
the individualizing of the doctrine of divine retribu- 
tion was first seriously attempted in the exile by Eze- 
kiel. Whether there are traces of this doctrine in pre- 
exilic literature is a disputed question. Stade's asser- 
tion that there are none, is too extreme. The passages 
in Jeremiah 12: 1, 2; 17: 5-10; 32: 18, 19 Kuenen con- 
siders as genuine; Stade as secondary. Cornill in his 
Hebrew text of Jeremiah in the Polychrome Bible, 
considers only the first two passages as genuine. Con- 
cerning Isaiah 33: 15, Kuenen and Stade also disagree: 
Cheyne ^^ does not consider the passage genuine. Traces 
of individualism are found, here and there, outside of 
the Prophetic Books. There is David's exclamation; 
" These sheep what have they done." '^ Then there is 
the Deuteronomic law: " Every man shall be put to 
death for his own sins." '" In the story of Achan ^' 

^« 18:18-20; comp. ibid., 33:12 ff; II K. 14:6a Dt; ct. 
Smend: Religionsgesch., Freiburg, 1893, pp. 312 ff, where it 
is stated that Ezekiel here supplements the teaching of the 
prophets that sin is caused by man's free will; also Well- 
hausen: Skizzen, etc., second ed., Berl., 1884, Heft I, p. 91; 
Montefiore: The Hibbert Lectures, 1892, pp. 251-253; Goi- 
tein: Das Problem der Theodicee, Berl., 1890, pp. 1 ff. 

^' J. Q. R., vol. Ill, p. 60. 

^« Cf. Cheyne's Heb. text of Isaiah in P. B., p. 21. 

"II Sam. 24:17, 560 B. C; cf. Driver: Notes on the He- 
brew text of the Books of Samuel, Oxford, 1890, p. 289 ad 
locum; cf. also Budde's ed. 

2°Deut. 24:16 (D); cf. Deut. 7:10 (D); II K. 14:6 (Dt). 

=^Josh. 7:11 (JE). 
7 



98 Eewakd and Punishment 

one man sins and the wrath of God is heavy upon the 
whole eommnnity; later'' Moses and Aaron enter 
strong protest against this very principle: "And they 
fell upon their faces^ and said^ God, the God of the 
spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou 
be wroth with all the congregation ? ^' 

It is in the Wisdom-literature "^ that the problem is 
fully stated. The individual takes the place of the 
nation, it is his lot that presses hard for some solution. 
The individual no longer found comfort and solace in 
the promises JHVH had made to the Israelitic nation, 
for they had not been fulfilled. He, the individual, 
was primarily interested in his own well being. Wen- 
ley thus pertinently states : '" " When the idea of jus- 
tice acquired prominence, its essential incompatibility 
with simple Eudaemonism came home not to Israel, 
but to some Israelites.'^ True, the ideal of God, bound 
to reward and to punish, was never wholly passed in the 
Old Testament literature. But the peculiar needs of 
the individual imperatively called for a God, who was 
able to save, not only the nation, but the individual 
also. In Job '* these pessimistic doubts were overcome 

--Num. 16:22 (P). 

"a riDDn '•ISD This literature is characterized "by an intelli- 
gent and moral universality. 

-^ Aspects of Pess., Edinb., 1894, p. 10. 

-* The Sages of the Talmud seem as much at sea about the 
date of Job as modern scholars, placing it in almost every 
age from that of Moses to the Persian period (B. Bathra, 
14b); Michaelis and Reggio favor the time of Moses; De- 
litzsch (evangel. R. Encycl.), the time of Solomon; Ham- 
burger (R. Encycl.) and Noldeke, the time of Hezekiah; 
Bickell (Wiener Ztschf. f. d. Morgenland, 1892, pp. 137 ff; 



IX THE Old Testamext 99 

by the native Optimism of the Jewish creed that, come 
what may, God is just. In Ecclesiastes/' written much 
later, the pessimistic donbts had been intensified by 
the degeneracy of the Hasmonean djTiasty, from which 
so much had been expected after the glorious campaign 
against the Syrians.'^ 

Although the Jewish nation seemed to have regained 
political independence after the Syrian host had been 
expelled from Palestine, it had virtually ceased to be 
a nation at the beginning of the Babylonian exile, 
henceforth it was a religious community. The Macca- 
bean uprising inspired by a desire to frustrate the 
machinations of Antiochus to Hellenize the Jews, 
ended in a victory for the Pharisaic party, the religi- 
ous enthusiasts who had incited the people to rebel. 
But this victory broke the national power, remnants 
of which had remained since the exile, for now the 
Pharisees being in the saddle made the observance of 
the Law the aim and object of life. In a certain sense, 
too, the Pharisees sowed the germ of personal religion 

1893, pp. 241 ff; 1894, p. 121), after 721 B. C; Kuenen (Rel. 
of Israel, Edinb., 1882, vol. II, p. 47), 608 B. C; Ewald, 
Hirzel, Bleek, Riehm, c. 580 B. C; Driver, Davidson, Zunz, 
Gesenius, Knoble, the time of exile; Konig-Einl,, p. 417, 
540 B. C; Haupt in Oriental Studies, p. 247, time of Darius 
Hystaspes (521-485 B. C), some parts of it as late as Anti- 
ochus (175-163 B. C); Hoffmann (Hiob., Kiel, 1891), 500 
B. C; Duhm (D. B. H.), c. 450 B. C; Budde, 400 B. C; 
Cheyne's art. Job in Cheyne's Encyel. Bibl. makes the book 
a composite of Persian and Greek periods; Cornill, Einl., 
6th ed., p. 348, c. 250 B. C. 

-^Cf. Excursus Ecclesiastes. 

^"Cf. Marti: Israelit. Gesch., Strasburg, 1897, pp. 266 fE. 

LofC. 



100 Eewaed axd Punishment 

by making obedience to the Law the guiding principle 
of the individnaFs life.''^ 

The doctrine of individiTality lies at the very root 
of personal religion, leading, also, to a recognition of 
responsibility and of the need and value of repentance. 
These make possible the moral improvement of the 
individual. But as soon as the gospel of individualism 
was comprehended human life became a more difficult 
problem to solve. Those instances where the innocent 
suffered and the guilty seemed to escape all punish- 
ment were too numerous to be explained away either 
as mere exceptions or as incidents of depravity. The 
untimely death of Josiah (638-608) seems to have fur^ 
nished material to the thinking minds and fanned the 
flame of doubt and discontent. JosiaVs death on the 
battlefield of ^Megiddo (608 B. C.) was looked upon, 
according to Jeremiah, as an awful national calamity. '' 
Defeat at Megiddo meant subjection to Egypt. Then 
so much had been expected from the reforms intro- 
duced by Josiah. The conception of JHYH'S justice 

-'^ Cf . Kent: "The Growth of Israelitish Law" in Bibl. 
and Semitic Studies, Yale Bicentennial Publications, N. Y., 
1901, pp. 84 ff; also Deutsch: The Philosophy of Jewish 
History, Cine, p. 80. 

=='22:10, 11, 18; cf. Giesebrecht: Comm. Z. A. T. (No- 
wack), Gott., 1894, reads with LXX n^b IDan-'pN for 
the Massoretic np? referring it to Josiah, who is bet- 
ter off, having died in his own land, than those who die in 
exile, far away from home and kindred; cf. also Cornill (in 
his Hebrew text of Jeremiah in P. B.), who accepts the 
Massoretic text, and refers n^Op to the dead in general; 
Kautzsch (Die Heilege Schrift) reads with Giesebrecht, 
niph (p. 520, note). 



IN THE Old Testamext 101 

called for perfect accord of lot and life. How was 
Josiah's death to be explained in tlie light of JHYH'S 
justice? Shortly afterwards (586 B. C.) the people 
were rnthlessly torn from their hearths and homes and 
carried captive to a foreign land. Then, the indefinite 
postponement of the Messianic age upon their return 
from exile caused a powerful recrudescence of the idea 
that the former sins of the nation still are being vis- 
ited upon a comparatively law-abiding generation. 
For the prophets of the exile had led the people to 
believe, that upon their return to Judaea things would 
be brighter and better. This spark was fanned into 
a flame by Haggai and Zechariah (c. 520 B. C.) who 
held out to the people a speedy realization of the Mes- 
sianic dreams. These enthusiasts had some warrant 
for their expectations."" Zerubbabel, of the House of 
David, was to be the Messiah; he was to inaugurate the 
new age.^ Conditions did not change for the better, 
in their own country they were the subjects of a Hea- 
then-power. If the captivity in Babylon was to atone 
for the sins of their forbears, why were they still suf- 
fering? While they were hoping and waiting for 
JHYH and putting their trust in Him, the Heathens, 

^ Some of the vassal states were in open rebellion against 
Darius. Haggai and Zechariah filled with Messianic hopes 
believed that they saw in these rebellions the end of Persia's 
power, and looked for a speedy beginning of the Messianic 
Kingdom. But Darius succeeded in stamping out the re- 
bellions in his empire, and the hopes of the prophets came 
to naught. 

^Haggai 2:20-23; cf. Graetz: Gesch. d. Juden., vol. II, pp. 
109 ff; Grimm: Euphemistic Liturgical Appendixes, Balto., 
1901, p. 63 n. 



102 Eewakd and Punishment 

their masters^ put their trust in the strength of war 
chariots and in the fleetness of horses: 

" There are those who trust in chariots and horses, 
But we in the Name of JHVH, our God . . . " ^o 

To advance proof for the justice of Providence from 
the fate of the nation was not a difficult task. For the 
people were never so wholly blameless as not to justify 
some punishment. But when the postulate of just re- 
tribution was applied to the individual, as in the case 
of Job, it was difficult to justify the ways of Provi- 
dence.^' Those who participated least in the guilt 
of the people, nay, even those who had strenuously re- 
sisted evil, had often to suffer most, while the careless, 
and the thoughtless, and the unjust enjoyed good for- 
tune. Within this position there was raised for the 
pious, the question of the Theodicy, as propounded in 
the Book of Job."' Why do the pious suffer? Can evil 

^'ops. 20:7, 8 (167 B. C); cf. Driver: Introd., 6th ed., p. 
388. 

3^ Cf . Wellhausen's critical notes on Psalms in P. B. 
(Engl. transL), to Ps. 37: " The prosperity of the wicked is 
a sore offense and painful mystery to the godly." 

■'- It is generally conceded that the Book of Job is not the 
work of one author. The thought developed in prologue 
and epilogue differs from the central idea of the interven- 
ing poetical sections. Prologue and epilogue are pre-exilic, 
written, possibly, before the discovery of the Law of Retro- 
spect (621 B. C), for there is no reference in them to the 
Sanctuary or to the Priesthood. Job still exercises the pre- 
rogatives of the patriarch, offering in his home sacrifices for 
his children (1:5). A well-known popular tale seems to 
form the setting for the poetical section of Job and this 
tale is used by a post-exilic author for the framework of 
his philosophical theories (cf. Macdonald: "The Original 



1 



IN THE Old Testament 103 

and misery and the disproportion between merit and 
recompense, be explained on the hypothesis of a wise 
and beneficent Eiiler? How can the mere existence of 
evil, and the apparent injustice in the affairs of men 
be reconciled, not merely with the fundamental teach- 
ings of the Law, but with any form of Theism, what- 
ever? These and similar questions press for a solution 
in the Book of Job. The accepted belief, handed down 
from sire to son since days immemorial, that compensa- 
tion, either in the positive form of reward, or in the 
negative shape of retribution, determined everything 
that befell man, no longer satisfied every one. The 

Form of the Legend of Job," in Journal of Bibl. Lit., vol. 
XIV, pp. 63 ff; also Koliler: "Job in Folklore" in "Semitic 
Studies," Kohut Memorial Vol., Berl., 1897; Nork: Bra- 
minen und Rabbinen, Meissen, 1836, p. 240, who asserts that 
Job is an Indian legend). This seems also to have been 
the view of the Talmudic doctors (B. Bathra 15a it is 
stated: "Job did not exist, and j<-in3 nh) n^n ah mw* 
n\-l h^r2 i<hi< the book is an allegory"). Budde: 
D. B. Hiob. (Nowack), Gottingen, 1896, Einl. VIII; Mai- 
monides: More Nebuchim, III, 23; Wellhausen's notice of 
Dillman's Hiob. Kom. im. Jhrbch. f. d. Theol., 1871, p. 555; 
Kautzsch: D. Sogenannte Volksbuch von Hiob., Lpzg., 1900; 
Driver: Introd. to O. T., 6th ed., p. 411; Duhm: D. B. Hiob., 
Freiburg, 1897, chpt. I; B. Miiller: D. echte Hiob., Hanover, 
1902. The book belongs to the Khokma lit. It deals with 
difficulties, which in kind, if not in degree, might occur to 
all men, to any man. Cf. Kent: tjber d. philos. Versuche 
in d. Theodicee, Lpzg., 1838, p. 399, who calls Job " a con- 
secration of free critical inquiry into the ways of Provi- 
dence." Cf. Carlyle (Sartor Resartus, Boston ed., I, p. 
280), who speaks of Job as "the first luminous statement 
in books of the problem of the destiny of man and the way 
God takes with him on earth;" cf. Blumenthal: Rabbi Meir, 
Frankf., 1888, p. 74, 



104 Eewaed and Punishment 

principal elements of Ezekiel's teaching'^ concerning 
individualism reappear in Job. Here it is shown that 
the doctrine of man's individual worth and of a strictly 
individual retribution, are really irreconcilable. The 
former doctrine receives, in the person of Job, its no- 
blest exposition in all ancient literature, while in Job's 
actual fortunes the extravagance and fiction of the lat- 
ter are demonstrated to the full. In the highest de- 
gree conscious of his own worth and rectitude. Job 
claims that Grod should deal with him in accordance 
with what he deserves. Job, like all those among whom 
he lived, believes that everything which befalls man 
reflects God's disposition towards him — misfortune be- 
tokens anger, prosperity God's favor. In brief, there 
is a strictly retributive judgment enforced in the affairs 
of man. But Job discerns that this is not always the 
case,^* for the wicked prosper, grow old and go down 
to the grave in peace, and, more than all this, his seed 
is established on the earth. But the conflict between 
faith and experience is most pronounced in Job's own 
lot. He may, possibly, err in regards to others, not 
knowing every detail of their lives, but his own life 
is open before him, as from an open scroll he may read 
all that has transpired. He comes to the conclusion 
that as things are out of joint in this world, faith does 
not receive its full recognition.^' Eliphaz, one of Job's 

3^Cf. notel5. ^* 21: 1-15. 

^^ There is a curious passage in the Talmud (B. Bathra, 
16a), which seems to deny the right of God to judge man. 
Rabba (299-352) said: "Job sought to free the world from 
judgment. Thou didst create the ox, . . . the ass, 
. . . Eden, . . . Gehenna, . . . the righteous and 
the sinner — who can prevent Thee from doing it." 



IN" THE Old Testament 105 

friends, in order " to justify the ways of God to man/' 
asserts that suffering, though oftentimes seemingly 
undeserving, is not without purpose : 

"Happy the man whom God corrects; despise not, there- 
fore, the chastenings of the Lord." **^ 

Especially, Elihu'' insists upon the disciplinary value of 
suffering. Suffering, as he opines, is not only the con- 
sequence of sin, but may be a judgment, warning the 
sinner by repentance to escape from heavier judg- 
ment/^ 

(Comp. 8:5-7; 11:13 f; 36:8-15 Elihii) ; also Prov. 3:11, 12, 
where about the same thought is expressed: 

*^ nn^pK^Ni riNt ^s inn^inn rpn"'?Ni DSDn-'px ^:^ -"^ id-io 

nvT js-ns: nsD-1 n^D? 

" My son, despise not the chastenings of JHVH; 
Neither be weary of His reproof; 
For whom JHVH loveth He reproveth; 
Even as a father the son in whom he delighteth " (A. 

R. V.) 
Cf. Hebrews 12:5, 6; Rev. 3:19; also Talm. Berachoth 5a: 

"Whom God loves He chastises; " cf, Frankenberg (Gott., 
1898, who reads Prov. 3:12b with LXX {fxaaTvyoi^i nXDl 
for 1JSI3-1 " He chastises the son in whom he delights." 
Kautzsch (A. T.) in loc. prefers ^''Np". "1 Hiphil for Piel 
as the Piel is not found. Nowack: D. spriiche Salomo's, 
Lpzg., 1883, adapts the LXX reading. Cf. also M. Kayser- 
ling: Moses Mendelssohn, Lpzg., 1888, p. 465. 

3'Chpts. 32-37, a later insertion. Cf. Kautzsch's A. T., p. 
844, note; Driver: Introd. 6th ed., p. 410; Budde: D. B. H., 
Gott., 1896, Einl. XXXV; Smend: Altest-Theol., p. 502, 
note 3. 

^ 33:19 ff; 36:8-10; cf. Driver: Introd. 6th ed., pp. 409 ff. 



106 Eeward and Punishment 

The author of Job puts into the mouth of the friends 
the current theological view about reward and punish- 
ment. They continue appealing to the traditional the- 
ory; though it be in flagrant contradiction with the 
facts of life, they insist upon it being accepted.^ They 
possess a cut and dried formula to solve all inconsist- 
encies that others may see in the affairs of men — God 
is just. He rewards the righteous and punishes the 
T\dcked.*" If this connection is not always discernible, 
it is because the sin, of which the calamity is a punish- 
ment, has remained hidden from mortal eyes; or the 
punishment has been deferred, where sin has been dis- 
covered and remained unpunished; in God's own time 
it will be meted out to the transgressor, or visited upon 
his progeny. Hence, according to the Theology of the 
friends, one is justified to infer their character from 
the evident conditions of men. In keeping with this 
theory, the prosperous are the righteous, while those 
who are poor and suffer are the unrighteous, for there 
can be no suffering without sin having been incurred. 

Thus Eliphaz addresses himself to Job, who, in spite 
of all his friends' theories, protests his innocence: 

" Is it for thj^ fear of Him that He reproves thee, 
That he enters with thee into judgment? 
Is not thy wickedness great 
And without end your transgressions? " *^ 

^»Cf. Studer: D. Pess. im Kampfe mit d. Orthodoxie, 
Bremen, 1881. 
«Cf. Barth: Beitr. z. Erkl. d. B. Hioh., Lpzg., 1876. 
"22:45. 



IN THE Old Testament 107 

Zopliar sj)e^ks in a rimilar vein: 
" Should thy boastings make men hold their peace? 

And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee 
ashamed? 

For thou say est, my doctrine is pure, 

And I am clean in thine eyes. 

But Oh that God would speak. 

And open His lips against thee. 

Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine 
iniquity deserveth." ^ 

In the eyes of his friends, Job, so terribly afflicted, 
was regarded as steeped in wickedness. But Job's 
wickedness was aggravated by his attempt to argue 
against the theory of his friends; such resistance was 
iniquitous, for it meant a denial of God's justice. But 
Job does not concern himself about their remon- 
strances. He quotes instances where neighbors who 
had ridden roughshod over all law, human as well as 
divine, were not only exempt from punishment, but 
prospered and lived on the fat of the land. Where did 
providential equity come in ? "^ Deeply does Job search 
for the cause of all the dire visitations that came upon 
him. Must it be necessarily inferred that his misfor- 
tunes are the result of waj^vardness and sin? as his 
friends contend, who first doubt his innocence, then 
deny it, and finally accuse him openly of iniquity." 
Manfully Job struggles against such conclusion,*' and 
sustained by the unconquerable power of his con- 
science, he makes up his mind that life's blessings and 
adversities are not distributed in keeping with the 

*= 11:3-6. «Chpt. 21. «8:5; 11:6; 22:4 ff. 

*^Cf. Kayserling: Moses Mendelssohn, Lpzg., 1888, p. 465. 



lOS EeWAED AXD PrXISHMENT 

principle of justice, yet he concludes to continue on the 
path of righteousness, conscious that, whatever others 
may think of it. he is pursuing the right way: 

" My eye is dim on account of sorrow and the members of 

the body are as a shadow. 
Upright men will be astonished at this, and the innocent 

is wroth at the wicked. 
Yet the righteous holds fast to his way, and he that has 

clean hands waxes stronger and stronger." *^ 

In the poetical section of the book the problem re- 
mains unsolved. JHTH appears to the persecuted Job, 
and in a series of questions, demonstrates to him the 
infinite power of the Deity.*' Job, overwhelmed by 
the depicting of JH\ JbL'S power, is compelled to make 
admission that the human mind cannot and ought not 
to scrutinize the mysteries of Providence.** This does 
not offer a solution, it acknowledges that it exists but 
must ever remain a problem to mankind. It is an 
appeal of Job to the God of faith. The fact that the 
writer does not seek to solve the antinomies of the 
problem, by making his argument, as one might antici- 
pate, lead up to the doctrine of a future life, shows that 
''• the larger hope '' was, as yet, not a part of the ac- 
cepted teachings of that generation. The Psalmists, 
as weU as the men whose savings are preserved in the 
Proverbs, are equally impotent to solve the riddle. 
Their vision does not extend to a life beyond as a solu- 
tion for the complex mystery of life, "^ith Job they 

« 17: 7-9. *• 38-42:6. 

*Cf. Goitein: Der Optimismus und Pessimismus, Berl., 
1890, pp. 6ff. 



IN THE Old Testament lOU 

take refuge in the firm conyictioii that JHVH is just, 
be appearances what they may. Whatever the facts 
of life may prove, to interpret them as conflicting with 
JHVH'S justice would be folly. 

In the narrative conclusion of Job the problem finds 
a ready solution in keeping with the good old theory 
according to which Job being a righteous man is richly 
indemnified by reparation of all his losses.*^ 

Similarly the ways of Providence are justified in the 
Book of Tobit/° which, in a sense, is also a Theodicy. 
The author admonishes us to follow the moral and 
ceremonial law strictly, and promises rich reward to 
the obedient. While virtue was its own reward, God 
would see to it that the pious were well cared for. The 
book centres around the zeal of Tobit, who is ever busy 
burying the friendless and homeless.^ His very life he 
jeopardizes in the practice of this meritorious and God- 
pleasing act, for the ruling powers were hostile to bur- 
ial and had interdicted it.''^ But Tobit escapes pun- 

^» 42:10b; cf. Macdonald: "The Original Form of the 
Legend of Job " in Journal of Bibl. Lit., vol. XIV, pp. 63 ft. 

^ Lohr's transl. of Tobit in Kautzsch's Apokryphen und 
Pseudepigraphen places the date bet. 175-25 B. C; Graetz: 
Gesch. d. Juden., second ed., vol. IV, note 17, argues for the 
time of Hadrian (76-138 C. E.) ; Kohut in Geiger's Jlidische, 
Ztsch., 1872, pp. 70, 99, puts it still later, about 250 C. B., 
at the time of the rule of the Guebres in Persia; Noldeke 
("Die Texce d. B. Tobit" in Monatssch. der Kgl. Akad. der 
Wiss., Berl., Jan., 1879) places the date of book before 70 
C. E.; Hitzig (Zeitsch. f. wissenschaftl. Theol., 1860, pp. 
250 ff) favors the time after 70 C. E. 

^U:8, 17 ff; 2:2-9; 4:3; 9:9. 

"aCf. note 63. 



110 Rettaed axd Punishmext 

isliment, God rewards him for carr3ing out His be- 
hest/' Thus we read: 

" And. if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, 
anc^ he be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, his 
body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou 
Shalt surely bury him the same day; ..." 

The dignity ascribed to man in the Old Testament 
literature ^ has possibly some connection with the rite 
of burial. Burial was regarded as indispensable to the 
comfort of the departed. It was rarely withheld in 
Israel. Criminals who were hanged/* or stoned,^ as well 
as suicides^ were accorded burial.^® The corpse was an 
object of devout and tender respect only because it 
was thought that between it and the soul that had taken 
wing some continuing relation needs must be, because 
the Hebrew mind was possessed by the poetic thought, 
that this world and the world to come held out, as it 
were, arms to embrace each other. Hence, it was 
thought, that the separation of the two elements of 
earthly existence, body and soul, could not be sudden 
and abrupt, but the latter still for some days hovered 
and lingered around the mansion which had sheltered 
it so long, taking its final departure only when death 
had begun to set his seal irrevocably on his work in 

"Deut. 21:22, 23 (D). In Talm. Moed Katon, 27b, burial 
is spoken of as an act pleasing to God. In Talm. San- 
hedrin 46b and Jebamoth 63b burial is said to be a biblical 
precept found in Dent. 21:22, 23; cf. also Spira: D. Eschato- 
logie d. Juden., Halle, 1889, pp. 20 ff. 

^Gen. 1:27 (P). =^ Deut. 21:22, 23 (D). 

^^ Joshua 7:24-26. 

=^Cf. Josephus: Bell. Jud., Ill, VIII, 5. 



IX THE Old Testament 111 

the visible marks of corruption/" To be refused hon- 
orable interment was looked upon as a most grievous 
calamity.*^ The awful sentence of the prophet of 
JH^^ pronounced on Jezebel^ the wicked spouse ol 
Ahab (919-897 B.C.) is: 

" And the dogs shall eat Jezebel . . . and there shall 
be none to bury her." ^ 

An awful denunciation of Amos against Amazia (836- 
80: B. C.) is "that he shall die in a strange land " '^ 
away from his kindred who could not show him the 
last honors. It was the fate that awaited Israel's ene- 
mies.^ The most awful pimishment that Jeremiah sees 
in store for Judaea, on account of her idolatry and wil- 
fulness, is contained in the opening sentences of the 
eighth chapter: 

•' At that time, saith JHVH, they shall bring out the 
bones of the kings of Judah . . . and the bones of the 
princes . . . and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusa- 
lem, out of their graves; and they shall spread them 
before the sun . . . they shall not be gathered, nor be 
buried . . . " ^^■ 

' Ct. Perles: "On Interment of the Dead in Post-Bibl. 
Judaism," in Frankel's Monatsschrift, 1860; cf. also Ben- 
zinger: Hebr. Archaeologie, Freiburg, 1894, pp. 163 ff. 

^ Talm. Jebamoth 63b; cf. Kohut: Angelologie u. De- 
monoL, p. 12. 

^11 K. 9:10 (Dt). This may explain why childlessness 
was looked upon as a dire misfortune; also the institution 
of the Levirate (Lev. 18:6 H) may derive its origin hence. 
Prof. Mielziner (The Jewish Law of Marriage and Divorce, 
Cine, 1884, p. .55) considers the Levirate an agrarian law. 

« 7:17b. 

° Jer. 25:33; ibid., 14:16; Ps. 79:3 (169 B. C). 

^Sil'l (c. 620 B. C); cf. ibid., 9:21b; II K. 9:10 (Dc); 
Ez. 29:5 (588 B. C.) ; Baruch 2:24. 



112 Rewaed axd Puxishmext 

To disturb the rest of the second home was regarded 
as an act of cruelt}^ and inhumanity. The barbarous 
custom of the Parsees, who tore their corpses from their 
graves to be devoured by vultures, drew from Jewish 
breasts many sighs of anguish.^ The dread of being 
unburied was common to almost all peoples.®^ Thus 
among the Asspians to be refused burial was regarded 
a terrible misfortune. The destroyer of the Assyrian 
royal inscriptions is threatened with the curse : " His 
life shall end by famine, his corpse a grave shall not 
receive/^ " Another time we are told that a rebel who 
had committed suicide was refused burial."^ Surbani- 
pal relates that after the overthrow of Elam he de- 
troyed the sanctuaries and uncovered the tombs of the 
kings, " their bones I took along to Assyria, I imposed 
restlessness upon their shades and excluded them from 
the libations.'^ ^^ Two causes may help to explain the 
dread of being unburied."'*"^ Sacrifices could not be 
offered to the dead unless they had received proper 
burial. Sacrifices were offered at the grave; for the 

•"^(Jebamotli 63b); cf. Kohut: Angel, u. Demonol., p. 12. 

•^^aCf. Robertson Smith: Rel. of the Semites, London, 
1894, p. 370. 

*^-Cf. Rawlinson: The cuneiform inscriptions of W. Asi:i, 
61, col. VI, 55. (Gibira a irsl, May he not receive a grave.) 

*^Cf. Delitzsch: Handworterbuch s. v. Kibru. 

'^^Ct. also Jer. 8:1; comp. Baruch 2:24. 

«*c Cf . Charles : A Grit. Hist of the Doct. of a Future Life, 
pp. 32 ff; also Schwally: D. Leben n. d. Tode, pp. 9-16; 
Stade: Gesch. d. v. Jisroel, vol. I, pp. 387 ff; Benzingar: 
Hebr. ArchaeoL, pp. 102, 165 ff; Nowack: Hebr. Archaeol., 
vol. I, pp. 192 ff; Bertholet: Israelit. Vorstellungen n. d. 
Tode, Freiburg, 1899; Frey: Tod., Lpzg., 1898, pp. 188 ff. 



IN THE Old Testament 113 

grave was in some measure the temple in Ancestor 
Worship. That traces of Ancestor Worship lingered 
in the popular mind may be the cause of the Mosaic 
Code prohibiting all mourning customs that may pos- 
sibly revive the old worship. From the standpoint of 
JHVH-religion everything connected with death was 
declared unclean. Priests shall have little to do with 
it, the High-Priest nothing at all.^° The second cause 
for the dread of remaining unburied was the current 
conception that the soul was connected with the body 
even after death. Hence every outrage to the dead 
body was also an outrage to the departed soul. This 
view appears as late as Job's time.^^^ As the Greeks 
and Eomans believed that those who had not received 
burial were wandering about on the shores of the Styx, 
similarly the Hebrews believed that the soul of the 
unburied would seek vengeance and bring about all 
kinds of evil.^ Except in cases of necessity cremation 
was looked upon by Babylonians, Assyrians and Jews 
as an awful disgrace." 

But not only burial, but burial in the family sepul- 
chre, was the desire of every Jew. Peters*^ speaks of 
sacred burial-sites in Persia to which caravans, carry- 
ing some beloved dead, may be met at every season 
of the year. The repeated mention made in the Old 

«^Lev. 21:11, 1 (H) ; cf. Prey: Tod., pp. 173 ff; Nowack: 
Hebr. ArchaeoL, vol. II, pp. 275 ff. 

«^aCf. Job. 14:22. 

««Deut. 21: Iff (D). 

'''Cf. Jeremias: Holle u. Paradies, Lpzg., 1900, p. 10. 

"« Cf . Peters : " Civilization in Babylonia," J. A. 0. S. 17 : 
163 ff; also Jastrow: "Burial Customs in Babylonia," 
J. A. O. S. 20, pp. 133 fC. 



114 Eeward axd Pun"ishmext 

Testament of "being gathered to the fathers," nDK^^^) 
(vnns nv, or "to his people" (V^i; bx ^idnJ'"), proves 
what hold this sentiment had npon the people. 

««Geii. 15:15 (JE). 

^°Gen. 49:29-38 (P) ; Num. 27:13 (JE). 



CHAPTEE VI 

Messianism in the Old Testament 

Throughout the Old Testament there is no ethical 
significance attached to life after death, nor is a hope- 
ful view of life after death ' to be found, except the 
passage in Daniel 12 : 2. Everywhere it is the old 
Semitic conception of a cheerless existence in Sheol/ a 
gloomy underworld. Sheol was first conceived as a 
combination of the graves of the clan or the nation, and 
thus as a final abode. j\lan's destiny ends in Sheol ; into 
its precincts all men aHke find admittance: ^ 

' George Adam Smith in his Lectures on Hebrew Poetry 
at the Johns Hopkins University (1895-96), stated that the 
Semites had no genius for immortality because they lacked 
a sustained sense for speculation. Cf. Jastrow: Study of 
Religion, London, 1901, p. 223. 

-Cf. Jeremias: Holle und Paradies, Lpzg., 1900, p. 31; 
also Charles: A Critical Hist, of the Doctrine of a Future 
Life, London, 1899, p. 34, note. ?fXk^ (pit) corresponds 
exactly with the Assyrian sualu. Both denote the place 
under the ground where the dead reside. In Assyrian the 
term is explained as the place of judgment, among the 
Jews as the place where every living being shall finally be 
demanded; (the root ^IXL*^ means to ask, to demand), a 
place of ingathering. Thus Habakkuk (2:5) compares the 
vicious man's desire to Sheol or death, who cannot be satis- 
fied, but gathereth unto him all peoples. Cf. Cams: "The 
Babyl. and Hebrew view of man's fate after death," in 
Open Court, June, 1901, p. 346. 

^Isa. 14:9, 10 (c. 550 B. C); cf. Cheyne's crit. notes on 
Isa. in P. B. (Engl, transl.) in loc; comp. Ez. 31:14-17; 
Job 30:23; 26:5; Ps. 16:10 (167 B. C). 



116 Messiaxism ix the Old Testament 

" Sheol beneath is startled because of thee, expecting soon 
thine arrival; 

It makes arise from their thrones all the kings of the 

nations, 
They all address thee . . . and say to thee: 
Thou, too, art made strengthless as we are — to us hast 

thou been leveled!" 

Just as one desired burial in the family sepulclire 
that he may join the circle ol his ancestors, so honorable 
interment was a prerequisite to an honorable place in 
Sheol, i. e. to a imion with his people there. Other- 
wise, he is thrust into the lowest and outl}'ing parts 
of the pit/ Sheol has different divisions or chambers 
niD mn (Prov. T : 2T); it is also provided with gates 
(Job 38 : 17), and these are secured with bars (ibid., 
17 : 16). It was located in the lowest parts of the 
earth (Ps. 63: 9), below the sea (Job 26: 5), yet above 
the subterranean waters (Ps. 71:20). It is, therefore, 
without light. Job speaks of it as " the land of dark^ 
ness." ^ Upon the whole, the outlook beyond the grave 
is dreary. The Psalmists assure us again and again 
that JHYH enjoys life and not death. Man must 
praise Him while living, for the dead cannot praise 
God: 

" Wilt thou for the dead work a wonder? 
"Will shades rise to render Thee thanks? 
Do they tell in the grave of Thy goodness? 
Of Thy faithfulness, in the world down below? 
Can Thy wonders be made known in the darkness? 
And Thy righteousness in the land of oblivion? " ® 

* Ez. 32 : 22 f . = 10 : 21 f ; comp. Jonah 2 : 7. 

«Ps. 88:10-12 (c. 536 B. C). 



Messian"ism in the Old Testament 117 

" It is not the dead who praise JAH, 
Nor all those who are gone down to the silent land, 
But it is we who bless JHVH, 
From this time forth for ever and ever." ^ 

In Ecclesiasticus we read: 
" I hate idolatry with all earnestness; 
Who will praise the Most High in Sheol? 
For all the living can praise, hut the dead that are no 

longer cannot praise. 
Therefore praise the Lord whilst thou livest and art 
whole." 7a- 

Two eases are on record of men who were not 
doomed to abide in Sheol — Enoeh and Elijah.* But 
these exceptions are nowhere mentioned as indicative 
of hope for other mortals to escape the doom of a re- 
tention in Sheol. For the mass of mankind Sheol re- 
mains a monster whose maw is constantly open to de- 
vour life with all its pomp, noise and confusion: 

" Therefore Sheol gapes ravenously, and opens the mouth 
to its widest; 
And the splendor of Zion, and her busy throng, and all 
who are joyous within her, plunge headlong into 
it." » 
" Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, 
And whole, as those that go down into the pit." ^° 

And yet the very conception of Sheol warrants the 
belief that some vague idea of a future state was cur- 

"Ps. 115:17 f (167 B. C); comp. Ps. 6:5. 
^a 17: 24-27. 

«Gen. 5:24 (P) ; II K. 2:11 (c. 830 B. C). 
»Isa. 5:14 (c. 785 B. C). 

^"Prov. 1:12 (c. 200 B. C); cf. Driver: Introd. 6th ed., 
p. 405; comp. Prov. 30:16. 



118 Messiaxism IX THE Old Testamext 

rent among the Hebrews. The mere fact that the dead 
followed with much interest and sympathy the fate 
of those left behind on earth" led to conjuration and 
necromancy. The classical example is the story of the 
Witch of Endor.'" The appearing of Samuel to Saul 
did not admit complete cessation of the life of the 
spirit after death. The consultation of the occult 
powers by Saul throws a flood of light upon the Escha- 
tological belief of his countrymen."" A sharp distinc- 
tion is drawn between body and soul, or^ rather, the 
spirit, which after the dissolution of the body was be- 
lieved to continue as a ghost.'* Samuel's spirit was in 

"Isa. 14:9, 10 (550 B. C). 

^-I Sam. 28:7-16 (about 950 B. C); comp. Isa. 65:4; 
57:9; 29:4; 8:19. 

13 '' rpj^Q Q rp_ suppllcs US wltli ail admirable illustration 
of the method of obtaining oracles through the dead. Saul, 
when he desires to know what the outcome of a battle will 
be, seeks out a sorceress and through her calls up the dead 
Samuel (I Sam. 28:11) and puts the question to him. Simi- 
larly, in the Gilgamish Epic, the hero, with the aid of Ner- 
gal, obtains a sight of Babani and plies him with ques- 
tions. ... It is natural, therefore, to find the Baby- 
lonian term sualu paralleled by the Hebrew sheol." Jas- 
trow: The Rel. of Babyl. and Assyria, Boston, 1898, p. 560. 

"Cf. Briggs: Semitic Studies (in Kohut's Memorial Vol., 
Berl., 1897, pp. 94-105) on the use of 2b and lib in the 
O. T.; also Goodwin: "On the use of 2^ and Kap^m 
in the O. and N. T.," in Journal of Bibl. Lit., vol. I, pp. 
67 ff; also Ges. Buhl (13th ed.), p. 765a, 2; also Wohlge- 
muth: Die Unsterblichkeitslehre in der Bibel, Berl., 1900, 
pp. 5 ff. " According to the primitive Hebrew view, man 
was composed not of three essentially distinct elements — a 
trichotomy — spirit, soul and body, but only of two — a dich- 
otomy — spirit, or soul, and body. Spirit and soul were one 



Messiaxis:\i ix the Old Testament 119 

Sheol and had been disturbed by the necromancer. 
The dead retains the personal appearance that belonged 
to him while among the living, for both Saul and the 
witch instantaneously recognize Samuel, who is dis- 
pleased at being disturbed (1 Sam. 28: 15). Also the 
habits of the living seem to be preserved among the 
shades in Sheol. The prophet is thus distinguished 
by his mantle (ibid., 28 : 11); kings by their thrones 
(Isa. 14: 9); the uncircumcised by the foreskin (Ez. 
32: 21). Schwally is of the opinion that life in Sheol 
was regarded as a kind of continuation of life on earth.'" 
Sheol, first a place for all dead alike,"^ became later a 
kind of intermediate abode,'" later still, a place of pun- 

and the same. They were synonymous in their primitive 
signification as " breath " or " wind." The conception of 
both was arrived at by observation. When the breath 
(nn or :^2J) left the body, death ensued. Thus the 
principle of life was identified with the soul or spirit." 
Cf. Charles: Doctrine of a Future Life, London, 1899, p. 45; 
cf. also Toy's crit. notes on Ez. in P. B. (Engl, transl.) to 
chpt. 37, where it is stated that "breath (= spirit) and 
wind are in form identical in Hebrew as in many other lan- 
guages, and in the earliest ideas of men the two things 
were identical." 

"D. Leben n. d. Tode, Giessen, 1892; cf. also Spira: D. 
Eschatol. d. Juden., Halle, 1889, pp. 23 ff; Derenbourg in 
Revue des etudes juives, XV, 29, p. 109; Frey: Tod., Lpzg., 
1898, pp. 188-228. 

"Isa. 14:9-11 (c. 550 B. C); comp. ibid., 38:18 (post- 
exilic); Ez. 31:14-17; 32:18-31; Job 30:23; 26:5; Isa. 26:14, 
19 (c. 332 B. C); Ps. 55:15; 6:5; 16:10. 

^' The idea of Sheol as an intermediate abode became the 
prevailing view after 200 B. C. Abr. Geiger states (Was 
hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen, 2d ed., 
Lpzg., 1902, p. 67) that while the D^pHV (the pious) 



120 Messiaxism IX THE Old Testament 

ishment." Like the Babylordaiis and the Greeks, the 
Jews developed the idea that there must be a differ- 
ence in the fate of the dead. In the Old Testament 
there is no distinction between Gehenna and Paradise, 
all mortals are after death gathered into Sheol. But 
the gloomy picture of Sheol must haye aroused aver- 
sion, and at the same time doubt as to the justice of 
JHYH. If Sheol be the end of the just and unjust 
alike, how is this fact to be reconciled with JHVffS 
justice? Such reflection must needs lead to the idea 
of a retribution after death, reward for the pious and 
good, punishment for the godless and sinful. This idea 
is not fully developed within the Old Testament, for 
such a development presupposed belief in a Messianic 

dwelled in Paradise, the D"'i;Si''l (the wicked) dwelled in 
Gehenna. Those who were between the pious and the 
wicked (D''31i''2) lived in a place between Paradise and 
Gehenna. He quotes a Midrash (to Eccl. 7:14) in proof 
of his statement. " How much space is there between the 
two, viz.. Paradise and Gehenna? R. Jochanan said — a 
wall. R. Acha, a hand's breadth. While other Rabbis 
claimed that they were close to one another, so that one 
could see from one place into the other. Cf. Charles: Doct. 
of a Future Life, p. 69, who discerns a reference to an inter- 
mediate state in Job 19:25-27; comp. Isa. 26:19 (c. 332 B. 
C); II Mace. (c. 20 C. E.) 7:9, 11, 14; 12:44. 

^® The subdivision of Sheol into Paradise and Gehenna is 
late. In the Old Testament no such division is found. 
Sheol is not as in the dualism of Persia a realm of evil as 
opposed to good, but it is a part of the general plan of 
divine creation. Thus R. Zeira (257-320) explained il^n 
nj<D niD " behold it was very good," with pi; p -IT 
"this is Eden," and n&<D 210 n^n) "and behold it 
was very good " he explained with U^Tii -IT " this is Ge- 
henna " (Midr. Rabb. to Gen. chpt. 9). Though the word 



MeSSIANISM INT THE OlD TeSTAMEITT 121 

age and a hope in individual immortality. Messianism, 
as well as individual immortality, did not constitute 
real elements in the consciousness of the Jew until 
political independence began to wane and with it the 
hope of ever rehabilitating it. Therefore, retribution 
after death does not find its complete development 
until the centuries that witnessed the decline of the 
classical world and the rise of Christianity. For the 
same fundamental beliefs that shaped the religion of 
the nation, and determined the development of every 
other department of its religious literature, showed 
themselves to be fully operative also in ..le Old Testa- 
ment ideas concerning " the last things.'^ It was the 
doctrine of the chosen people Avhich shaped and mould- 
Gehenna occurs in the Old Testament it never refers to a 
place of torment in the spirit world. The worst punish- 
ment ever threatened against evil in Old Testament is death 
(Cheyne: Introd. to the Bk. Isa., p. 380, thinks punishment 
in Gehenna is implied in Isa. 50:11; 64:24; cf. also Smend: 
Alttest. Religionsgesch., p. 506.) The word Gehenna is de- 
rived, ultimately, from DJin \^ (Valley of Hinnom). It 
lay to the south of Jerusalem. The name is possibly taken 
from some ancient hero, the son of Hinnom (Joshua 15:8; 
18:16). Solomon erected high places there for Moloch 
(I K. 11:7), whose horrid rites were revived by later idola- 
trous kings. Ahaz and Manasseh made their children pass 
through the fire in this valley (11 K. 16:3) (comp. II Chron. 
28:3; 33:6); and the fiendish custom of sacrificing infants 
seems to have been kept up for some time in Tophet (Jer. 
7:31; II K. 23:10). Josiah polluted the place to put an end 
to the abominations (II K. 23:10, 13, 14; II Chron. 34:4 f), 
and it became the common cesspool of the city (comp. Jer. 
7:31, 32; 19:6, 11; 32:35a). In the Midrash to the eleventh 
Psalm we read: "There are seven dwelling places for the 
wicked in Gehenna; cf. Talm. Sotah, 11a. 



133 Messianism in the Old Testament 

ed the growth of Hebrew and Jemsh Eschatology. 
The ideal was not individual but national. The reali- 
zation of this ideal was laid in this world — it was Ca- 
naan re-established as a politically independent state 
under the sceptre of one of the House of David.'® 

In modern days^ under the name of Zionism, the na- 
tional ideal of the ancient Hebrews has been resus- 
citated.''" Zion is again the watchword for the op- 
pressed and persecuted to gather on the holy soil of 
Palestine as an independent nation. 

The ideal of the individual could be only attained in 
the realization of the national ideal.- Here was noth- 
ing to direct the gaze of one beyond the grave. Good 
and ill as he experienced them, were either reward 

"Hosea 1:11; 12:9; 14:4-7 (c. 750 B. C); Amos 9:11-15 
(a later addition); cf. Driver: Introd. 6tli ed., p. 318; cf. 
Ez. 11:16, 17; 20:42; 36:28; 37:24-28; 39:25-29 (592-570 
B. C); Obadiah 12-17 (586 B. C); Jer. 32:42-44; 33:7-13 
(586 B. C); Jer. 31:1-4 (after 586 B. C); Zech. 8:1-8 (518 
B. C); Joel 3:16-21 (400 B. C); Zech. 10:6-12 (280 B. C.) 

■'^ Zionism dates from the year 70 C. E., which witnessed 
the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome. From that time on 
the Jew became a wanderer on the face of the earth. Many 
efforts have been made to gather the Jews, dispersed over 
the face of the earth, in Zion. The love for Zion was ever 
strong among the Jews. (Cf. Songs of Exile, Nina Davis, 
Jewish Publ. Soc'y, Phila, 1901.) In more recent days 
(1864) a journalist by the name of Hess published a pamph- 
let, " Rome and Jerusalem," in which he advocates the re- 
nationalization of the Jew in Palestine. The Zionist move- 
ment of the present is indirectly due to the assassination of 
the Czar Alexander II, in 1882. The Jews were held respon- 
sible for the crime and the consequence was an awful perse- 
cution. As a result of this, a score of men met in Odessa 
and resolved to start a movement to lead the Jews back to 
Palestine. A number of societies by the name of " Lovers 



Messianism in the Old Testament 123 

and punishment for his doings, or the consequence of 
some good or bad deed on the part of the nation. 
Sickness, loss, and death, were the sure wages of trans- 
gression. As JHVH settled his accounts on earth, 
there was no need to look for a future reward. Death 
is the punishment for extreme wrongdoing; and life, 
life prolonged, life honored, life enriched, life made 
happy by many children, life filled with all those things 
men care for — this is the greatest reward ever offered 
for goodness within the pages of the Old Testament. 
The deprivation of these is the worst threat made in 
the way of punishment: "Behold the righteous shall 
be recompensed on earth; how much more the wicked 
and the sinner." ^' 

of Zion " were organized among the Jews in Russia, and 
also outside of it. But the movement for some cause lan- 
guished for about twelve years, when the celebrated case 
of Captain Dreyfus infused it with fresh life. The move- 
ment henceforth assumed an international character under 
the leadership of Drs. Herzl and Nordau, two men of letters. 
Dr. Herzl published " The Jewish State," in which he co- 
gently advocates the acquisition of Palestine and its con- 
version into a Jewish state. Inspired by this publication a 
meeting of representative Zionists from all parts of the 
world took place in Basle in August, 1897. The following 
is taken from a Zionist publication (The Maccabean, N. Y., 
July, 1902) : " Zionism is a movement which voices the feel- 
ing that has pervaded the Jewish people since the Diaspora 
— the desire for the re-establishment of the Jews in their 
ancient fatherland. The modern movement is endeavoring 
to replace remote yearnings by organized effort; it is con- 
scious of a variety of influences, bringing necessity up to 
the level of the strongest sentiment." Cf. J. de Haas: 
Zionism, London, 1901; also Max Nordau: "Zionism," in 
the International Quarterly, vol. VI, No. 1 (1902). 
^^Prov. 11:31. 



124 Messiaitism in the Old Testament 

" The curse of JHVH is in the house of the wicked, 
but He blesses the habitations of the righteous." " 

ITeither the authors of the Pentateuch/^ nor the 
Prophets, ever taught that after death the soul would 
enter upon another existence, in which virtue would be 
rewarded with eternal happiness an.d vice with eternal 
pain. The Old Testament horizon lies wholly on this 
side of the grave.''* But the reward of virtue is not 
always bestowed on him to whom it rightfully belongs, 
nor is punishment, even, meted out to him who is de- 
serving of it. This led to a problem most difficult of 
solution. Job wrestles with it without avail, also Eccle- 
siastes,^" and before them, Jeremiah '^ makes reference 
to it. So early was the problem set, but it cannot be 
said that it has ever been solved within the pages of 
the Old Testament. 

Of necessity an ethical sense must spring up among 
the ancient Hebrews, because it springs up among all 

^^Prov. 3:33; comp. Deut. 28:16-68 (D). 

^^Cf. Ewald (Gescli. d. V. Israel, third ed., vol. II, pp. 
190-93) says: " Mosaism neither denies or affirms any view 
concerning the life after death, it remains wholly indiffer- 
ent to it." 

''Ct. Lev. 26:3-34 (H) ; comp. Deut. 29:21-28 (Dt) ; Jer. 
22:8, 9 (586 B. C.) ; cf. Hartmann (Das rel. Bemusstsein der 
Menschheit, BerL, 82, p. 432), who seems to think that the 
promise of reward and punishment was not the essential 
contents of the Law, but merely an additional motive to have 
it obeyed. Cf. also Dillon (Sceptics of the O. T,, London, '95, 
p. 11), "It was one of the saddest theories ever invented. 
Virtue was at best a mere matter of business, one of the 
crudest forms of utilitarianism, a bargain between JHVH 
and his creatures." 

2°Cf. Eccl. 1:2; 3:8, 21; 4:2, 3; 6:3; 7:15; 8:10; 9:11, 12. 

2«12:l-5 (626-604 B. C). 



Messianism in- the Old Testament 125 

peoples after they reach a certain stage of develop- 
ment. Unclouded skies and perfect happiness are con- 
ditions of innocent childhood. But as the child grows 
older, clouds appear in the skies and happiness be- 
comes less and less perfect. Thns while the ancient 
Hebrews during many centuries seemed wholly satis- 
fied with the affairs of life, never doubting for one 
moment that JHYH had ordered everything for the 
best, the time came when they began to ask the why 
and wherefore of many happenings. Good and evil 
was the weightiest of the problems pressing hard for 
some solution. How can the undoubted evil of the 
world be reconciled with the supposed original perfec- 
tion." To the Theist the existence of evil must ever 
be a most perplexing problem. How could God have 
created evil which implies imperfection on the part 
of God? From this problem it was but a short step to 
the other problem: " Can the disproportion between 
merit and recompense be explained on the hypothesis 
of a wise and beneficent Ruler? " Human standards of 
equity and justice look for a causal connection between 
sin and suffering, righteousness and happiness. 

The discord between the actual and what our sense 
of justice would seem to demand, was in truth the bur- 
den of the Prophetical writings. It is a characteristic 
of the ethical-religions in contrast with nature-religions 
that the former have as their contents not chiefly the 
present, but seek true satisfaction in a future state. 

"Cf. Munk: "Melange de pliil.," Paris, 1859, p. 462: " Ce 
qui devait surtout preocuper les sages des Hebreux c'etait 
I'existeiice du mal dans un monde de I'etre qui est le Su- 
preme Dieu." 



126 Messianism in the Old Testament 

In Mosaism religions hope had but little place; the in- 
dividiTaFs goal was circumscribed. While the prophets, 
on the whole, cling to the Mosaic idea of reward and 
punishment, they supplement it with the hope of a 
Messiah, or rather a Messianic Kingdom here on earth 
to be ruled over by a representative of JHYH who is 
to mete out justice. 

" The spirit of the Lord JHVH is upon me, because JHVH 
has anointed nie, 

And has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted, to 
bind up the broken-hearted, 

To proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening of the 
eyes to the blind. 

To proclaim JHVH's year of favor and the day of ven- 
geance of our God, 

To comfort all mourners, to give them instead of ashes a 
coronal, 

Oil of joy for the garment of mourning, a song of praise 
for a failing spirit. 

So that men will call them Children of Righteousness, 
the planting of JHVH with which He adorns Him- 
self. 

For I, JHVH, love justice, I hate unjust spoil. 
And I will give them their recompense faithfully, and 
make with them an everlasting covenant." -^ 

This became necessary to give a satisfactory expla- 
nation to those who were dissatisfied with the apparent 
injustice in the lot of man, but chiefly to point to the 
transitoriness of the success of the heathen nations. 
Retribution would ultimately even up all inequalities. 

Similarly, the poets and philosophers of the classi- 

^^Isa. 61:1-4, 8 (432 B. C); comp. Jer. 31:23 f (586 B. C.) 



Messianism in the Old Testament 120' 

cal age of Greece, unable to solve the painful and per- 
plexing riddle of the conflict between guilt and faith, 
sought at first a solution in the conception of retri- 
bution in the world below, by which Hades, hitherto 
thought as indifferent, was differentiated into places 
of reward and punishment. Hartmann observes,^' 
" that the empirical Pessimism which takes in Ecclo- 
siastes ^° the place of the old Israelitic Optimism, be- 
came an incentive for the large majority of people to 
save Theism and the justice of God by going beyond 
the empirical conditions of life and adopting the Per^ 
sian belief in Eesurrection. The transcendent continu- 
ation of life, and being repaid for the ills and woes of 
life form a theory (Hilfstheorie) of Theism necessary 
from the moment the misery of this life ha3 been 
found out." 

Though the term " Messianic " ^' was the product of 

"^ Das rel. Bewusstsein d. Menschheit, p. 460; cf. also 
Stade, Akad. Reden und Abhandlungen, Giessen, 1899, p. 41. 

^° 1:4-10. 

^^ The term " anointed," ^''t^'P does not appear in the 
Old Testament as a technical term; it is always used in its 
general significance. Any person might be spoken of as 
'• anointed," " an anointed one." Of course the term was 
used of but few; these were the High-priests, as Aaron and 
his sons (Exod. 30:22-33; Lev. 4:3 P), the kings (I Sam. 
10:1; 16:13), occasionally the prophets (Ps. 105:15). In 
this -metaphysical sense the term was always applied to 
any individual upon whom the spirit of JHVH seemed to 
have descended to lay on him a commission (Isa. 61:1, 432 
B. C). This applies to Cyrus (Isa. 45). In 45:13 Cyrus 
(558-529 B. C.) is to rebuild the city of JHVH and in 44:26 
he is to lay the foundation of Jerusalem. Cf. also Grimm: 
Euphemistic Liturgical Appendixes, Balto., 1901, p. 12, note 
on n^K'D 



128 Messianism in the Old Testament 

the ideas of a later time, the hope it implied existed 
for many centuries before the term came into actual 
use as a designation for the Messianic or Theocratic 
government. The expectation of a particular person- 
age is found in the Psalter of Solomon ^' (63-45 B. C), 
where the technical title of " Messiah '^ first occurs. The 

^- Under the title " Psalter of Solomon " there is extant 
in a Greek translation a collection of 18 psalms, modeled, 
evidently, on the canonical psalms. The psalms are quick 
with Messianic hope. It seems to be certain that the orig- 
inal language of these psalms was Greek (cf. Ryle and 
James: The Psalter of Solomon, Cambridge, 1891, pp. 77 fC; 
Kittel's transl. in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. II, pp. 129 ff ) . 
Perles: " Zur Erklarung d. Ps. Sal.," Berlin, 1902. These 
psalms were not known during the Middle Ages. The 
earliest traces of their existence are found in the IVth Bk. 
of Ezra (90 C. E.). Hilgenfeld (Messias Judaeorum, Lip- 
siae, 1869, pp. 13 ff) states that the author of Ezra must 
have been familiar with the psalms, as is shown by com- 
paring passages of Ezra (13:39; 4:25) with psalms (8:34; 
9:18). The date (63-45 B. C.) seems to meet with general 
favor. That the second psalm refers to Pompey (48 B. C.) 
is the opinion of Noldeke, Geiger, Schiirer; cf. also Pick: 
"Psalter of Solomon," in Presbyterian Review, 1883; also 
Cornill: Einl., p. 295; Cheyne: Rel. after the Exile, p. 245; 
Kittel's transl. in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. II, p. 218; Gunkel: 
Schopfung u. Chaos, p. 79. The Maccabean time is favored 
by Ewald, Oehler and Dillman. Delitzsch argues, for the 
time of Herod; cf. also E. E. Geiger: D. Psalter Solomo's, 
Augsburg, 1871; Hilgenfeld: " Ztschf. f. wiss. Theol., 1868, 
pp. 134-168; Drummond: The Jewish Messiah, 1877, pp. 133- 
142; Winter u. Wuensche: Gesch. d. Jiid.-Hellenist. u. Talm. 
Lit., Berl., 1897, vol. I, p. 687; Zunz: " tjber den Glauben d. 
Juden an einen Kiinftigen Messiah," Ztsch. f. d. Wiss. d. 
Judent., Berl., 1822, vol. I; Frankenberg: Die Datierung 
d. Psalmen Solomo's, Giessen, 1896. 



MeSSIAN"ISM IX THE OlD TESTAMENa: 129 

Messiah ^''^ is, here, the son of David and King of 
Israel. His mission it is to cleanse Jerusalem from 
all heathenish abominations and to slay all the god- 
less/^ Eobertson Smith correctly states that the idea 
of a personal Messiah is post-canonical with reference 
to the Old Testament.^* Dean is of the opinion ^° that 
the Psalter of Solomon ^^ was conceived in the spirit 
of Old Testament prophecy, and was designed to con- 
sole the Jews nnder national calamity by confirming 
their faith in future retribution and Messianic hopes: 
" Behold, Lord, and raise up for them their King, 
the son of David, at the time which Thou, God, 
knowest." '*^ ^ The Messianic hope expresses the faith 
deeply rooted, that the Israelitic nation is immortal, 

'-a On n'^^D (Messiah) see Lagarde, Psalt. Chpt. VII; 
Semitica, 1:50; Symmicta 11:92; Ubersiclit ilber die im 
Aram., Arab. ii. Hebr. iibliche Bildimg d. Nomina, Gott., 
1889, pp. 90-109; Register ii. Nachtrage, pp. 62-65; Mitth. 4, 
p. 389; Deutsche Schriften, Gott., 1892, pp. 53, 95, 128. On 
Mess. Psalms cf. D. G. Stevens in the Johns Hopkins Univ. 
Circulars, No. 106 (June, 1893), p. 108b. See also Stade: 
Akad. Reden u. Abhandl., Giessen, 1899, pp. 39 ff; cf. also 
Weinel n^k^O und seine Derivate in Z. A. T., 1898, pp. 1 ff. 

*n7:21ff; 18:5-9. 

'*Cf. Art. "Messias" in Encycl. Brit., XVI; Philipson: 
Weltbewegende Fragen, Lpzg., 1874, vol. I, pp. 282 ff. 

^° Pseudepigraphe, Edinb., 1891, introd., p. 6; Mlihsam: D. 
Jlidische Sibylle, Wien, 1864. 

^^ The name Solomon did not occur in the original title 
of the Psalter. But as the Psalter became known and was 
beginning to be used, as it could not be ascribed to David, 
and thus become a part of the canonical psalms, it was 
ascribed to Solomon and reached the early Christian writ- 
ers under that designation. Cf. Dean: Pseudepigrapha, p. 
27. 

^''ai7:23. 
9 



130 Messianism in the Old Testa^ext 

that violence and oppression were forces that must "ulti- 
mately exhaust themselves and that under the guid- 
ance of JHVH things Avere working toward that end. 
For the knowledge of JHVH was gradually spreading 
over the world; it could only be a question of time when 
it should fill every corner of the globe and light up its 
dark places. To despair of the future would be to 
give up faith in JHVH Himself. 

The strong belief in God and the unshaken confi- 
dence that at last this God, the God of Israel, will be 
the God of the whole world, is the belief that underlies 
Messianism in the literature of the Hebrews and the 
Jews.^^ The Messianic idea is thus bound up with the 
belief in Israel's providential destiu}^, and is the bur- 
den of the thoughts and activities of the prophets in 
pre-exilic as well as in post-exilic times.^ In the uni- 
versal teachings of the prophets, the coming of the 
Messiah is not a time, but, rather, a condition in the 
affairs of mankind. That kingdom was to consist of 
a regenerated nation; a community in which the Divine 

^'Cf. Schechter: Studies in Judaism, Phila., 1896, p. 151; 
comp. Mai. 2:10; Zech. 14:9; Zeph. 3:8, 9; Micah 4:1-5; Joel 
3:11, 2; Isa. 2:2-4; 45:23; 61:11; 66:18 ff. 

^^ " If the term ' Messianic ' be understood to refer to gen- 
eral hopes of temporal salvation for the Israelitish people, 
there are, undoubtedly, Messianic predictions in the O. T. 
Such passages as Isa. 2:2-5; Micah 4:1-4; Isa. chpts. 11, 49, 
53, 60; Zech. 9:9 and chpt. 14 express the conviction of pious 
men that the religion of JHVH would become the religion 
of the world, and that the nation would be rescued from its 
oppressors and dwell in its own land in peaceful security. 
Other passages such as Isa. chpts. 35 and 40-48 relate to the 
return of the exiles " (Prof. Toy in Christian Register, June 
29, 1899). Cf. also Stade: Akad. Reden und Abhandlungen, 
Giessen, 1899, pp. 57 ff. 



Messianism in the Old Testament 131 

Will should be sedulously fulfilled; an organized society 
interpenetrated and welded together, and shaped to 
ever higher issues by the presence of God; in brief, that 
condition of world-wide arbitration among nations 
when the instruments of war shall be supplanted by the 
implements of peace. This sentiment is most beauti- 
fully voiced in Isajah: ^'' 

" And in the latter days the mountain of JHVH'S house 
will be established as the highest of the mountains, and will 
be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream 
to it, and many peoples will set forth and say: 

Come let us go up to the mountain of JHVH, 

To the house of the God of Jacob, 

That He may instruct us out of His precepts. 

And that we may walk in his paths; 

For from Zion goes forth instruction. 

And the word of JHVH from Jerusalem. 

Then will He judge between the nations. 

And give decision to many peoples: 

And they will beat their swords into mattocks, 

And their spears into pruning-knives; 

Nation will not lift up sword against nation. 

Neither will they learn war any more." 

Since the Messiah formed no organic part of the 
Messianic idea, he was sometimes conceived as present 
at its head, sometimes as absent.*" Two factors were 

"" Isa. 2:2-4 (post-exilic Mess. Appendix); comp. Micali 
4:1-4 (a post-exilic insertion); cf. Cheyne's crit. notes on 
Isa. in P. B. (Engl, transl.), p. 147, 1. 27; Jost: Gesch. d. 
Judent., vol. I, p. 309; also Talm. Berachoth, 34b. 

*"Cf. Dalman: Christentum und Judentum, Lpzg., 1898, 
pp. 11 ff; cf. Talmud B. Sanhedrin 98b, where Hillel is 
quoted as having said 'pXTki^^i' H^^D p&< " Israel has 
no Messiah; " cf. Rashi ad locum, inVUD 'q^D"' n'n'p'n N^X 

" God himself will reign. He alone will redeem them." 



132 Messiaxis:m ix the Old Testamext 

indispensable to its realization; it must be a conmiim- 
ity of Israelites, or of these together with non-Israel- 
ites, and it ninst be a conuntmity in which the will of 
JHTH is the paramount law. "With the expansion of 
the horizon of human thought, the prophets empha- 
size more and more strongly the moral and religious 
genitis of their expected Messiah as the head of the 
kingdom. Ever greater and grander were the qualities 
assigned to him and his dominion was not to be limited 
to Israel alone, but took on more and more clearly the 
qualities of imiversal world-wide influence and power. 

That the conception of the Messianic kingdom is 
as early as the seyenth century may be deduced from 
the writings of Amos (c. T60 E.G.):*" '''In that day 
will I raise up the fallen tabernacle of David, and close 
up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, 
and I will build it as in days of old. . . . And I will 
bring again the eaptiyity of the people of Israel, and 
they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. .'' " 

Hosea (c. 710 B. C.) too refers to the establishment 
of the Messianic kingdom: "^ "Yet the ntimber of the 

-- Cf . Hartung: Der Propliet Amos, Freiburg i/B, 1S98. 

*^ 9:11, 12. WelltLausen, Smend, Cheyne and Xowalk doubc 
the genuineness of passage, considering it an exilic addi- 
tion. So Geiger (Xachgel. Schrift, vol. 4, p. 214) and G. A. 
Smith (Twelve Minor Prophets, p. 195), Preuschen (ZAT, 
vol. 15, pp. 23 ff); cf. also Schwally: ZAT, vol. 10, p. 227. 
The opposite view is defended hy Comill: Einl. 3, p. 184; 
Driver: Joel and Amos, 1897, pp. 119-123. 

^ As in Amos so these references are considered as later 
additions, but I consider them, as the passage in Amos, gen- 
uine; cf. Driver: Introd. to O. T., sixth ed., p. 306; also 
Marti : Gesch. d. Israel. Rel., pp. 181 f . 



MeSSIANISM IX THE OlD TESTAMENT 133 

children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which 
cannot be measured or nnmbered; and it shall be that, 
in the place ^Yhere it was said to them, ye are not my 
people, it shall be said to them, ye are the sons of the 
living God. And the children of Judah and Israel shall 
be gathered together. . . .'' " "And the children of 
Israel shall abide many days without a King ... 
afterward shall they return and seek the Lord their 
God, and David their King." *' 

Isajah (before 701 B. C.)"' makes reference to the 
kingdom in the following terms: 

" Therefore this is the oracle of the Lord, the Hero of 
Israel: 

Aha! I will vent my displeasure on mine adversaries, and 
take vengeance on mine enemies; 

I will turn my hand against thee, and will smelt out in 
the furnace thy dross, 

I will bring back thy judges as at first, and thy coun- 
selor as at the beginning; 

Thereafrer thou wilt be called Citadel of Righteousness, 
Faithful City." 

"What follows is a post-exilic appendix: *' 
" Zion will be set free through judgment, and those in her 
who have turned from evil through righteousness; 
But there will be a destruction of the apostates ..." 

Xahum (661-607 B. C), too, speaks of the Messianic 
Kingdom. "The day of JHVH" and the establish- 

"1:10, 11. ^'3:4, 5. 

*= 1:24-26. Cf. Cheyne's Engl, transl. of Isajah in P. B., 
p. 42. 

*' 1:27-28; cf. Cheyne's Engl, transl. of Isajah in P. B., 
p. 44. 



134 Messianis:m ix the Old Testament 

ment of the Messianic Kingdom are the theme of chap- 
ters 1-2: g.*" 

Jeremiah (626-586 B. C). living in the midst of the 
storm that was gathering, saw through the dark and 
threatening clouds the approach of the kingdom. He 
takes a broad view and includes among those who will 
benefit by its coming the yery nations that have been 
hostile to Israel, but who have experienced a change of 
heart: " Thus says JHVH against all mine evil neigh- 
bors, that touch the inheritance which I have caused 
my people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them 
up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of 
Judah from among them. And it shall come to pass, 
after that I have plucked them up ... I will bring 
them again every man to his heritage, and every man 
to his land.^^ " 

" Behold, tlie days come, saith JHVH, that I will raise 
unto David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king 
and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness 
in the land." ^^ 

Ezekiel (593-571 B. C), like Jeremiah, had also vis- 
ions of the breaking of the new morning : 

"Thus says the Lord, JHVH: When I gather the House 
of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, 
and manifest my sanctity through them in the sight of the 
nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I 
gave to my servant Jacob." ^^ 

^Cf. Gunkel (ZATW. 1893, pp. 223 ff) speaks of chpts. 
1-2:2 as an alphabetical psalm; Bickell: Sitzungsberichte 
der Kaiserl. Akad. der Wiss. in Wien, vol. 131, v, p. Iff; 
also Nowack: Die kleinen Propheten, Gottingen, 1897, p. 231. 

*^Jer. 12:14, 15 (597 B. C). 

'^Jer. 23:5 (596-586 B. C); comp. ibid., 16:14,15 (596-586 
B. C). =^28:25. 



Messianism in the Old Testament 135 

" I will manifest my greatness and my sanctity, and make 
myself known to many nations; they shall learn that I am 
JHVH." ^= 

The Servant of JHTVH-cycle idealizes the faithful of 
Israel, through whose suffering was to arise the great- 
est blessing not only for Israel, but, ultimately, the 
whole world was to share in it: 

" And now JHVH says, — He who formed me from the womb 
to be a servant to Him, 
That I might bring Jacob back to Him, that Israel, — 

might be gathered; — 
It is too light a thing to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and 

to restore the preserved of Israel; 
So I set thee as a light of the nations; that my deliver- 
ance may be the end of the earth." ^ 

Also in Zechariah (14: 9, c. 300 B. C.) '"^ we read: 

" And JHVH shall be King over all the earth; on that 
day shall JHVH be only and His name one." ^* 

These passages indicate that the establishment of the 
Messianic kingdom was an important element in the 
religious consciousness of the spiritual guides of the 
nation. It is worthy of note, that during periods of 

^■^38:23. 

'M9:5, 6. The cycle of poetic passages (42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50: 
4-9; 52:13-53:12) of the Servant of JHVH dates from about 
432 B. C; cf. Cheyne's crit. notes to Isa. in P. B. (Engl. 
transL), p. 209, 1. 20; also Toy: Jud. and Christianity, Bos- 
ton, 1892, p. 225; Montefiore: Hibbert Lectures, 1892, pp. 
276 ff; Duhm (Nowack), 1892, who agrees with Cheyne that 
the Servant passages are of independent origin. 

^^aCf. Driver: Introd., 6th ed., pp. 349 f. 

=*Comp. Haggai (520 B. C.) 1:8; 2:6-9, 20-23; Joel (400 
B. C.) 3:1,2; Ps. 86 (167 B. C); Ps. 87 (500 B. C); Ps. 65: 
22 (post-exilic). 



136 Messiaxism ix the Old Testamext 

prosperity little is heard of a Messianic kingdom. It 
is in times of storm and stress that the hearts of the 
people are fired Tvith new faith and hope in a coming 
Eedeemer.'" The Messianic idea of the prophets was 
an off-shoot of their fervent faith in divine goodness. 
They could not shnt their eyes to the prevalence of 
injustice and of oppression, and to the supremacy of 
the Pagan nations over JHYH'S own people. And as 
the relative position of Israel among the nations be- 
came more and more apparent, and the impossibility 
of gaining any lasting political supremacy grew more 
certain, the belief in the Messianic age. when right- 
eousness and true religion would hold undisputed sway, 
came more prominently into the foreground. The sad- 
der the reality the brighter the future seemed to the 
religious enthusiast.^^ TVlien Babylon conquered Ju- 
daea " political independence seemed to be crushed for- 
ever/' yet Jeremiah saw rising in his visions a more 
glorious Zion.'^ Buffeted by every nation, oppressed 
by her own rulers, Israel yearned for some one endowed 
by JHYH with power to conquer and restore the for- 
mer prestige of Israel among the nations,'^ and to rule 

^Cf. Brinton (Rels. of Primitive Peoples, N. Y., 1897, p. 
128), who speaks of wonderful mythical cycles concerning 
the Deliverer and Savior common among many races. 

^^'Cf. Cheyne's ed. of Heb. text of Isaiah in P. B., p. 199; 
Wellhausen (Sketch of the Hist, of Israel and Judah, Lon- 
don, 1891, p. 213), where he states "that the ancient He- 
brews regarded the history of the world as a great suit 
between themselves and the heathens." 

=^597, 586, 581 (B. C). 

^Chpts. 30-33; cf. also Giesebrecht: D. B. Jeremia (No- 
wack), pp. 265 ff. 

5»Cf. Talm. Berachoth, 34b. 



Messianism in the Old Testament 137 

the nations as the representative of JHYH."" This 
hope was strengthened during the terrible persecu- 
tions of the Maccabean period. Daniel, carried along 
by the wave of religions enthnsiasm, dreams of a king- 
dom to be realized in the near future.'^ " The Book 
of Daniel/' states Graetz/' '' with its mystical revela- 
tions, was undoubtedly read with great interest by the 
Assidaeans. The apocalyptic form which gave each line 
a peculiar meaning, and reflected the present condi- 
tions, lent it a great attraction. Moreover, it solved 
the problem of the present calamities, and showed the 
object of the horrible persecutions; these Avere in- 

^ There were many pseudo-Messiahs in Jewish history. 
About 135 C. E. arose Bar-Kochba, " Son of the Star," who 
was welcomed by the greatest Rabbi of his time, Rabbi 
Aliiba, as the Messiah. The scattered sons of Israel were 
aroused as never before, and the first great Zionistic move- 
ment of Jewish history was inaugurated. Funds were col- 
lected, armies raised, and a widespread revolt set on foot to 
restore the ancient Zion. Three centuries after Bar-Kochba 
the first pseudo-Messiah arose in Europe, Moses of Crete. 
He gathered his fellow- Jews in the island around him and 
proclaimed himself Messiah. With the settling of the dark 
ages over the world, the Messiahs became more frequent 
Now it is David Alroy, or Alrui (1160 C. E.) in the East; 
again it is Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia in the West (Sara- 
gossa, 1284 C. E.) ; at another time it is David Reubeni (Sol- 
omon Molcho) at Rome (1528 C. E.) ; Isaac Luria, the Kab- 
balist, in Egj^pt (1569 C. E.); Sabbatai Zevi, who declared 
his Messiahship in Smyrna in 1666. The last of the pseudo- 
Messiahs was Jacob Frank (Jankiev Lejbovicz), who died 
1791. (For Sabbatai Zevi cf. Zangwill: Dreamers of the 
Ghetto, Phila., 1898; essay, "Turkish Messiah," also art. 
"Shabbathai Zevi." J. A. O. S., 2:1-16; for Alroi cf. Bea- 
consfield's romance, David Alroy. 

«' Jan., 164 B. C. '- Cf. Hist of the Jews, vol. I, p. 466. 



138 Messianism IX the Old Testament 

tended^ on the one hand^ to destroy sin, and on the 
other, to ennoble helieTers. It was evident that the 
duration of the period of affliction had been determined 
from the beginning, and this very dttration, too, had a 
secret meaning. The worldly kingdoms would dis- 
ajopear. and at the end of this time, God's kingdom, 
the kingdom of the holy ones, would commence, and 
those who had died or had been slain during the per- 
secutions would awake to eternal life.*' Thus, when 
Simon,"' the brother of Judas Maccabeus, was anointed 
King, it was with the distinct declaration, that he 
should hold authority only until Elijah should return 
as the forenmner of that Prince of the House of David, 
who should assume hereditary rule. 

The essential element of the Messianic Kingdom in 
the Old Testament on the material side, was the 
re-establishment of Israel's national independence, 
coupled always with unalloyed prosperity and well- 
being, at times, also, with world-wide dominion."* On 
the spiritual-ethical side, the Messianic conception im- 
plied the rule of righteousness and purity, the destruc- 
tion of sin, and the complete triumph of the Law. 
Idolatry shall cease, and war will be no longer prac- 
ticed. The new order of things will also extend to the 
animal world. "Then shall the wolf and the lamb 
feed together, and the lion eat straw like the ox." '^ 
The shaping of the Messianic conception was the result 
of the political conditions that obtained. In periods 
of persecution, the Messianic age was looked forward 
to as a time of peace and freedom; in time of war and 

«^ 142-135 B. C. 

«*Isa. 11:11, 12 (post-exilic); cf. ibid., 27:13 (334 B. C). 

'-'Isa. 65:25a (450 B. C). 



Messia^sHsm IX THE Old Tiestamext 139 

bloodshed it represented an era of human love and 
universal brotlierhood. Thus the older prophets hoped 
simply for deliverance from Assyria and for the main- 
tenance of the existing political state.*"' During the 
bitter days of exile, the kingdom was to be ushered in 
by " the Day of JHVH,'' and Israel was to emerge re- 
generated.^^ Jeremiah makes repentance a condition 
of the restoration of Israel to its political independence. 
The change of heart, which follows sincere repentance, 
will cause every member of the nation to return to 
JHVH and to obey Him: " I will give them a heart to 
know me, that I am JHVH, and they shall be my 
people, and I will be their God; for they shall return 
to me with their whole heart." '^ 

Ezekiel, too, traces the woes that had overtaken the 
nation to their wilful disobedience of JHVffS laws : 

•' I will gather them from the nations, and assemble them 
from the lands whither I scattered them . . . and I 
will give them a new heart, and put a new spirit '^^ within 
them; I will take away the heart of stone out of their 
bosom, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may fol- 
low my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them." ''^ 

«'^Isa. 14:24-27 (711 B. C). 

•^'Cf, Charles: A Crit. Hist, of the Doctrines of a Future 
Life, p. 101. 

*^-24:7 (597 B. C); comp. 31:33, 34; Cornill's ed. of Hebr. 
text (P. B.) considers passage later than 586 B. C; Gieso- 
brecht: D. B. Jeremia (Hdkt. Nowack) ascribes passage to 
Baruch. 

"'Cf. Toy's critical notes on Ez. (Engl, transl. P. B.) ex- 
plains " the new spirit " not regeneration in the modern 
sense, but a general disposition to obey the Law of God, espe- 
cially to avoid idolatry. 

■ni: 17-21; ibid., 36:25-28; cf. also Kent: "The Growth of 
Israelitish Law," in Bibl. and Semitic Studies, Bicentennial 
Publications (Yale), N. Y., 1901, p. 78. 



140 Messianism in the Old Testa^iext 

Haggai and Zechariah, the prophets of the Return/' 
sinking down from the pictures of glory to the stern 
realities of the present, confine themselves to the task 
hefore them, i. e. the rehnilding of the Temple, and the 
securing of a livelihood in a land that had been devas- 
tated by famine/^ The reality seemed hard, for they 
were led to believe that Persia was falling to pieces 
and that JHVH had sent Zernbbabel as the Messiah. 
But Persia's power did not wane, and the political inde- 
pendence of the Israelitic nation remained a dream." 

The advent of Ezra and ^ehemiah ^* fixed attention 
on the legal religious organization of the people,"^ and 
for the moment, there was no inducement to indulge 
in visions of future glory. Yet even now the hope in a 
Messianic age had not died out. For in a letter Nehe- 
miah receives from Sanballat he is accused of being 
disloyal to Persia and of being desirous to be the King 
of the Jews: 

" Then Sanballat sent his servant unto me in like man- 
ner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand, wherein 

^^Koster publ. in 1S93 his theory, which upsets all former 
traditions. He asserts that the return of the exiles under 
Cyrus was an invention for some purpose. Also the rebuild- 
ing of the Temple was not the work of the exiles, but of 
those who had remained behind and had never been in 
Babylon (cf. Meyer: Die Entstehung d. Judenthums, Halle, 
1896, Einl.). Wellhausen combats Roster's theories in " Die 
Riickkehr d. Juden aus d. babyl. Exil." in Nachrichten d. 
Gott. Ges. Phil. hist. CI., 1895, pp. 166 ff ; vide Roster's reply 
in Theol. Tijdschrift, XXIX, 1895, pp. 549 ff. 

'-Zech. 7:14; 8:9. 

'' Cf. V, n. 28. 

^* Roster dates Ezra's return 432 B. C. 

" Oct., 444 B. C, the P. C. was adapted and became a part 
of the Law. 



i 



MESSIAN"ISai LN- THE OlD TESTAMENT 141 

was written: It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu 
said it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel; for which 
cause thou art building the wall; and thou wouldst be their 
king." '« 

Eduard Meyer believes " that Neliemiah is wrong 
when lie states/' the accusations brought against him 
and his people at the Persian court, were for the 
purpose of goading them on to open rebellion. Meyer 
is of the opinion that it was the work of harmless fa- 
natics who did not stop to think what the consequences 
of their action might be. 

The feeling of solidarity that made itself felt in the 
writings of Xahum and Habakkuk, but especially in 
Ezekiel, reappears in intensified form in Ezra and 
Nehemiah."' While Jeremiah and Deutero-Isaiah fore- 
told the incorporation of the Gentiles into the Messi- 
anic kingdom, the prophets that follow them, classing 
Micah as post-exilic but holding the more catholic view, 
speak of the destiny of the Gentiles as being one of 
subjection and final annihilation. 

Where a religion is confined, solely, to one nation, 
as in the case of Judaism, the purport of the estab- 
lishment and course of the world is found in the aims 
of that peculiar nation, in the fulfillment of the hopes 
of a glorious future and of external might added to 
internal prosperity and welfare. All this came into 
severe collision, in the instance of the Jewish people, 

'"Neh. 6:5, 6 (425 B. C); cf. Guthe's ed. of Heb. text in 
P. B., p. 14. 

'■ D. Entstehung d. Judenthums, Halle, 1896, p. 242. 

'^6:14. 

'^Ezra 9:10; Neh. 9:2; 13:1-3; cf. also Herzfeld: Gesch. d. 
V. Jisrael, vol. I, p. 32; Wellhausen: Israelit. u. Jiidische 
Gesch., 4th ed., p. 178. 



142 Messianism IX THE Old Testa:mext 

with the stern facts of reality. Instead of triumphing 
over their enemies^ they were triumphed over by them. 
Yet^ side by side with the spirit of solidarity which 
some of the prophets sought to strengthen^ one discerns 
a gTomng sympathy with the affairs of the world 
beyond the borders of Jnd?ea. From the time of the 
exile, when the Jews came into contact with the civili- 
zations of Babylonia and Persia, they seemed to have 
modified their views as to the religions of those peo- 
ples. Then, as the world grew apace, so also did the 
conception of JHVH. The future kingdom was to in- 
clude not only JHYH"S chosen people but, at the same 
time, all the nations; it was to be a world monarchy 
and JHYH was to be its Euler. 

'■ Sing praises to God, sing praises, 
Sing praises to our King, sing praises, 
For King of the whole world is God. 

God has begun His reign over the heathen, 
He has taken His seat on His holy throne. 
Men, of their own free will, from the peoples, join the 

people of Abraham's God. 
For to God, our Shield, belongs the world; He is exalted 

on high." *'' 

Under this ever broadening outlook the individual 
began to see that his fate was no longer inexorably 

«°Ps. 47:6-9 (516 B. C.) ; cf. Wellhausen (crit. notes on 
Psalms, Engl, transl. P. B., to 47, p. 148) : "The conversions 
to Judaism, which became much more numerous after Alex- 
ander the Great, gave rise to this lofty Messianic hope; they 
signalized the beginning of JHVH'S universal rule. The 
remarkable spread of Judaism among the heathen at that 
time was undoubtedly a significant fact; it arose out of the 
Messianic hope, to which, in turn, it gave fresh vigor." 



Messianism in the Old Testament 143 

bound up with the fate of the nation; JHA^H re- 
garded all i^eoples and nations, and He watched over 
him too. In brief, he was a distinct personality.^"^ 
This conception is apparent in the Khokma litera- 
ture, as well as in the Psalms, where the community 
gradually retreats behind the individual, and the ^^ I " 
stands for the " we." '' 

Concurrently with the growth and development of 
the Messianic hope in the national consciousness, the 
claims of the individual forced itself irresistibly upon 
the notice of the religious thinkers, so that no repre- 
sentative of the future could look for general accept- 
ance and approval that failed to render them adequate 
satisfaction. There were people who held the faith 
in a coming age, who cherished it and looked forward 
to its realization in their own day, but who were dying 
one after another without having seen it and profited 
by it. This did not seem wholly just. Those who be- 
lieved it, and strove for it by being faithful to JHVH, 
ought to participate in the glory at its coming. Here 
is the germ of the conception of the Eesurrection of 
those who were just and pious. By and by it led to the 
idea that the righteous who died are really not quite 
dead, that they are leading a shadowy existence in 
Sheol.^' Later, this view was enlarged to include the 
wicked and godless. They, too, dwelled in Sheol, 
they, too, were to be raised, and behold the triumph 

^"aCf. Bhni: " Ursprung u. Entwickelimg d. Religion," 
Theol. Studien u. Kritiken,-1898, p. 636. 

" Chpt. IV, n. 92a. 

«^Dan. 12:2, 3; Enoch XXII (cf. Beer's transl. of Enoch in 
Kaiitzsch's A. ii. P., vol. II). 



144 Messianism in the Old Testament 

of the righteous — this would be their punishment, then 
they would be returned to their shadowy abode."' 

In Daniel the Messianic age and the Eesurrection 
synchronize with each other : ^'^ 

" And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame 
and everlasting contempt. But the wise shall shine as the 
brightness of the firmament, and they that led many to 
righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." ^* 

According to Daniel all the pious will share in the 
glories of the kingdom, and he who is seized b}^ death 
before its coming, may hope that one day he will be 
raised up and transplanted to the kingdom. The ob- 
ject of the resurrection is participation in the king- 
dom, and the basis of that faith is the ever more pow- 
erfully developing interest in salvation. This expecta- 
tion of a personal share, by means of a bodily revival, 
in the Messianic age,^*^ gave the Messianic hope Itself 

«^ Enoch LXIII: 10; XCIX:11; CIII:7ff; cf. also Harnack: 
What is Christianity? p. 143. 

^^'aCf. Montefiore: Hibhert Lectures, 1892, p. 457; also 
Geiger (Lesestlicke aus d. Mischnah, Breslau, 1845, p. 43), 
who states that in Mishnah the time of resurrection and 
Messianic age are identical. Einhorn (Sinai, Balto., vol. 
VII, 1862, Judenthum u. Christenthum) combats Geiger's 
view by citing Talmud Sebachim 118b and Niddah 61b, 
where a sharp distinction is made between the two. Later 
under the influence of Christianity resurrection and Mes- 
sianic age were identical. '^^ Dan. 12:2, 3 (164 B. C). 

^*a In the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament (vide 
Kautzsch: Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen, vol. I, Einl.; 
also Hamburger: Real Encycl., vol. II, pp. 66 ff, article 
"Apokryphen; " also Konig: Einl. in das A. T., Bonn, 1893, 
pp. 466 ff ) the Messianic hope cannot, by reason of the his- 
torical or didactic nature of these books, be brought promi- 



Messianism in the Old Testament 145 

added vitality. " Indeed/' says Montefiore, " the hope 
of a personal resurrection naturally becomes even more 
powerful as a motive of religious action, than the 
re-establishment of the national kingdom/' ^' 

The reign of Antiochus Epiphanes accentuated the 
belief in individual resurrection. The confidence in 
divine justice that rewards virtue in this world and 
does not forsake him who abides by the Law, was 
shaken to its depths by the daily experience that 
showed the pious and the righteous as victims of An- 
tiochus's wrath. These martyrs sealed their faith in 
JHVH by giving up their lives. Such faith must 
surely be rewarded. Divine justice must extend its 
sway beyond the limits of this life; this is the only 
solution of the vexed problem. Daniel, written in the 
very throes of the Maccabean struggle, reflects the 
sentiment of his day when he makes " retribution at 
some future time " the watchword that is to inspire 

nently forward (cf. Oehler in Herzog's Real Encycl., vol. IX, 
second ed., pp. 653 ff). But it is by no means absent from 
them. In Ecclesiasticus all the essential elements of the 
older Messianic hope, the expectation of penal judgment 
upon the heathen world (32:18, 19; 33:1), and Israel's deliv- 
erance from oppression (1:24), and the ingathering of the 
dispersed (33:11), are mentioned. Similarly in some of the 
other Apocryphal books, as in Judith 16:17; 2 Mace. 2:18; 
Tobit 3:12-18. In the "Wisdom of Solomon," which is per- 
meated with Hellenic speculation, the national element is 
lost sight of. By reason of his Platonic leaning the author 
of the book cannot imagine true happiness for the soul till 
after death (3:8; 5:1). Cf. Volkmar: Hdbch. d. Einl. in die 
Apokryphen, vol. II, Tiibingen, 1863; cf. Freudenthal: Die 
Flavins Josephus beigelegte Schrift. Das sog. IV Makkabaer- 
buch, Breslau, 1869. 
«^ Hibbert Lectures, 1892, p. 456. 
10 



146 Messiaxis:m ix the Old Testament 

the faithful not only to live but also to die."^ The 
martTrdoin of the faithful is repeatedly referred to in 
Daniel and in the Second Book of the Maccabees/' 
The men and women who so cheerfully laid their 
lives upon the altar of JHYH'S religion, should they 
abide forever in Sheol ? Xo. they will arise and re- 
joice in the glories of JHYH that He prepares for 
those who are His faithful followers. 

The Book of Daniel became the initiator of that 
class of literature known as Apocalyptic which flour- 
ished from about 160 B. C. to 140 C. E. The begin- 
ning of this period corresponds with the Maccabean 
uprising and with the growth of the doctrine of the 
Eesurrection. The end of the period fell after the 
horrors of the conflict with Eome — a conflict that did 
not end with the fall of Jerusalem, but which burst 
forth again in the wars against Trajan and Hadrian. 
This literature exercised an influence upon the religi- 
ous thought both of Judaism and of Christianity.^ 

The association of the advent of the Messiah with 
the promise of reward and punishment is the limit 
the doctrine attained within the Old Testament. In 
the Book of Daniel the hope is crystallized into an 
assurance of resurrection, its ideal of the future is the 

"''3:8-13, 17, 18; cf. Fiirst: Gescli. cl. Karaerthums, Lpzg., 
1862, p. 7. 

^'6:18 ff; 7:lff. 

^ Cf. Hilgenfeld: Die jiid. Apokalyptic, Jena, 1857; Deane: 
Pseudepigrapha, Edinb., 1891, Introd.; Buttenwieser: Apoca- 
lyptic Lit. in Jewish Encycl., vol. I, pp. 675 ff; Steinschnei- 
der in Z. D. M. G. 28:627 ff; 29:162 ff; Wellhausen: Sldzzen, 
etc., Pt. VI, 1899, pp. 226 ff; Smend: Ueber d. jiid. Apokalyp- 
tik in ZATW, 1885, pp. 221-251; Charles: " Eschatologj^ " in 
Cheyne's Encycl. Bibl., vol. II; Torrey: "Apocalypse" in 
Jewish Encycl., vol. I, pp. 671 ff. 



Messianism IN" THE Old Testameis^t 147 

Messianic kingdom which is to be established here on 
earth, after the Greek era shall have passed away. 

In the Ezra- Apocalypse ^""^ a fuller development of 
the eschatological conception is found; and in the 
Barnch Apocalypse ^^ the general resurrection of the 
dead, judgment of all souls. Paradise and Gehenna, 
are taught/^^ The re-establishment of the nation as 
politically independent is no longer the goal; it has 
been made a side-issue, a passing incident in the activ- 
ities of the Messiah, who is to prepare an era of peace 
aud of prosperity for the pious Jews. At the end of 
that new era the Messiah dies and with him his gene- 
ration ceases to be. Then will be "the end of time," 
with resurrection for all, the great Day of Judgment, 
and tlie division of the world into Heaven and Hell.*' 
That hour will be marked by an overthrow of the exist- 
ing order of things — the new regime to be ushered in 
by " The Day of JHVH.'' The end of time (d^dnt nnnt^) 

ssaiV Ezra 7:28, 78-99; 7:43; cf. Gunkel's transl. in 
Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. II, Einl. 

^"81-96; cf. Montefiore (some notes on 4th Bk. of Ezra in 
Jewish Chronicle, London, Nov. 29, 1901), who claims that 
the first two and the last two chpts. are probably of Chris- 
tian origin. 

^^'^a Harnack (What is Christianity? p. 142) states that, 
" though the Messianic doctrines prevalent in the Jewish 
nation in Jesus' day were not a positive dogma, they formed 
an essential element of the hopes, religious and political, 
which the nation entertained for the future." Cf. also 
Zunz: D. gottesd. Vortriige, second ed., 1892, pp. 379 ff; 
Hirsch: D. Religionsphil., p. 627; Wohlgemuth: D. Unster- 
blichkeit i. d. Bibel, Berl., 1900, 3d chpt. 

'°Cf. Wellhausen: Skizzen, etc., Ft. VI, pp. 230 ff; cf. also 
IV Ezra, chpts. 3-9 : 25 in Gunkel's transl. in Kautzsch's A. u. 
P., vol. II. 



148 MESSIA^^ISM ix the Old Testamext 

will be heralded hj great and ^ronderful portents and 
convulsions of nature^ and by the aj^pearance of signs 
on earth and in the sky."' 

The most complete eschatological ideas, current dur- 
ing the transition period from the Old to the Xew Tes- 
tament, showing close kinship with the spirit of the 
Xew Testament and the Talmud, are in the pre-Chris- 
tian Apocalypse Enoch/^ Here, the practical applica- 
tion of the belief in a future state becomes the motive 
for conduct.^^ Angels, and Satan with his satellites, 
Paradise and Gehenna with the status intermedins,*^* 
the everlasting kingdom of bliss, the latter offset by 
the everlasting torments of hell in store for the wicked; 
Jerusalem the centre of the Messianic glories: the du- 
ration of the kino-dom and Jud^ment-dav — all these 
find discussion in Enoch."' 

The date of the Apocah'pse is generally conceded to 
be pre-Christian."" The language was originally He- 

''^IV Ezra 5:1-13; 6:18-28; comp. Isa. 24; Zeph. 1:15; 
Zech. 14. 

^- (70-60 B. C); cf. Beer's transl. in Kaiitzsch's A. ii. P., 
vol. II, p. 233; Deane: Pseiidepigraplia, pp. 15 ff. 

®' Enoch 91:1-11 (Beer's transl. in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. 
II). 

^^aCf. Enoch 10:12; 100:5; IV Ezra 7:75, 80. 

^ Cf. Beer's transl. of Enoch in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. 
II, pp. 220 f. 

"^Cf. Gelbhaiis (D. Apologetik d. Jiident., Wien, 1896) 
favors 160 B. C. and Palestine as the place where it was 
written; Weber (Open Court, Chicago, April, 1899), 125 B. C; 
Dillmann (in Herzog's Real Encycl., 2d ed., XII, pp. 351 ff), 
64 B. C; Cheyne (Bampton Lectures, p. 412) says: "In the 
main Enoch is of pre-Christian origin, though there are 
some interpolations by Christian hands; " Marti (Israelit. 
Rel. Lehre, p. 271), end of first pre-Christian century; Toy 
(Quotations in N. T.), 130 B. C. 



Messianism in the Old Testament 149 

brew or Aramaic.^^ Few believe that the language was 
Greek." 

The book has come down to iis in an Ethiopic trans- 
lation made from a Greek translation extant in Egypt 
during the first Christian century.'" In the Xew Testa- 
ment quotations from the Ethiopic translations are 
found."* The Apocalyse was held in much esteem by 
the Fathers of the Church, especially by TertuUian."" 

^®Cf. Dean: Pseudepigrapha, pp. 75 ff; Beer's Einl. to 
Enoch in Kaiitzsch's A. u. P., vol. II, p. 17; Levi: Revue des 
etudes juives, XXVI (1893), p. 149. 

"'Cf. Vollonar: Z. D. M. G., pp. 131 ff; Philippi: D. B. 
Henoch, 1868, pp. 124 ff; Dietrich: D. B. Henoch Nekyia, p. 
216. 

""Cf. Beer's Einl. to Henoch in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. II, 
p. 218; Hallevi: Journal Asiatique, 1867, pp. 352-395; Dill- 
mann in Sitzungsber. der Akad. d. Wissenschaft z. Berlin, 
1892, pp. 1039 ff; Konig: Einl. in d. A. T., 1893, p. 494; Bouri- 
ant in " Memoires publiee par les membres de la mission 
archeologique francaise au Cairo, vol. IX, 1892 (Lods) ; 
Schodde: The Bk. of Enoch, Andover, 1882; Charles: The 
Bk. of Enoch, London, 1893; A. Geiger: " Einige Worte iiber 
d. B. H." in Jlidische Ztsch., 1864-65, Breslau. 

^^ Cf . Beer's: Einl. to Henoch in Kautzsch's A u. P., vol. 
II, p. 218. 

^<^Cf. Zahn: Gesch. d. neutest. Kanons, 1888, vol. I, p. 122. 



CHAPTEE VII 
Eesureectiox IX THE Old Testa^^iext 

The doctrine of Resurrection is a genuine product 
of Jewish genius, its factors are indigenous to Jewish 
thought. The way was prepared for it in the inde- 
pendent and concurrent eschatologies of the nation 
and of the individual, the synthesis of which could 
not admit of any other resurrection, saA-e that of the 
pious/ 

Many have held as an undisputed fact that post- 
exilic Judaism owes its most characteristic elements to 
foreign sources. Eecent developments have shown 
that similarity of usage and custom among peoples 
does not necessarily imply that one has borrowed from 
the other, but that both may have drawn from the 
same common source. Thus, the similarity that is 
urged to exist between Judaism and Mazdeism is due 
to a common origin — the Eeligion of Chaldee.' That 
the later eschatology of the Old Testament shows 
traces of Persian and Greek influence is well nigh es- 
tablished. But it has been the fashion to exaggerate 

^Dan. 12:2, 3. 

^Cf. Ed. Meyer: D. Entstehung d. Judenthums, Halle, 
1896, p. 239, note; also Tiele: Gesch. d. Rel. im Altertum, 
Gotha, 1896, vol. I, p. 365; cf. Budde: D. A. T. u. d. Aiis- 
grabungen, Giessen, 1902, in which Budde protests against 
the current tendency to trace the rel. development of Israel 
entirely to Babylonian influences. 



152 Kesueeection in the Old Testament 

this influence and make the Old Testament eschatology 
a copy of that of Persia and Greece.^ Gunkel believes 
that resurrection is foreign to the Old Testament, nor 
could it have risen from the eschatology of prophet 
or psalmist. The prophets, he claims, preached a fu- 
ture for the nation, not for the individual, and the 
psalmists believed in a God who could only be glorified 
and praised in the land of the living. But in Daniel 
we meet with a belief that is complete." This view of 
Gunkel is extreme. Granted that before Daniel ^ indi- 

^ Greek thought influenced Judaism greatly in Alexandria, 
which adopted the Platonic doctrine of the immortality of 
the soul. The Jews in Palestine under the influence of Per- 
sian thought accepted the teaching of Zoroaster of the resur- 
rection of the body and a judgment after death. 

*Cf. Gunkel: Schopfung u. Chaos, p. 291, n. 2; Mills: 
"Zoroaster and the Bible" in 19th century, Jan., 1894; 
Laing: A Modern Zoroastrian, London, 1893, 8th ed., chpt. 
13; Hang: Essays on the Sacred Languages of the Parsees, 
London, 1884, pp. 310 ff. 

^(164 B. C.) The traditional view of the date is the time 
of Nebuchadnezzar. Josephus (Antiq., XI: 8) makes the un- 
historical statement that Jaddua showed Alexander the pre- 
diction of his world-conquests. Keil (Daniel, Edinburgh, 
1872) makes Daniel a contemporary of Ezekiel, referring 
to Ez. 14:20; 28:3. Noldeke (Die Semitische Sprachen, 
Lpzg., 1887, p. 21) places the date 166 or 167 B. C. Herzfeld 
(Gesch. d. Volkes Jisrael, vol. I, Lpzg., 1863, p. 416), before 

164 B. C. Kautzsch (Die Heilige Schrift d. A. T.), end of 

165 or beginning of 164 B. C. Knobel (Der Prophetismus 
der Hebraer, Breslau, 1837, vol. II, p. 406) favors 163 B. C. 
Karpeles (Gesch. d. jiidischen Lit., Berl., 1886, pp. 126 ff) 
argues for 176-168 B. C. Steinthal (Zu Bibel und Religions- 
phil., Berl., 1895, p. 166) asserts that the author of Daniel 
knew nothing of the Maccabean uprising; he places the book 



Eesuerection in the Old TesTxVment 153 

vidua! resurrection was unknown to the Hebrews/ how 
could the idea find its complete expression in Daniel, 
unless it had been matured before in the religious 
consciousness of the people ? Such conceptions are of 
slow growth, for nations are conservative in matters 
that touch the fondest hopes. The real beginning 
of eschatology in the Old Testament is not before the 
exile, not during the exile, but must be looked for in 
the centuries that follow the return, when the proph- 
ecies that foretold the re-establishment of the Davidic 
House were not realized, and for two centuries blow 
had followed blow. From the awful days of Antiochus 
the nation never had any rest, and the woe that fol- 
lowed the destruction of the Second Commonwealth 
(70 C. E.) and the final expatriation of the people 
emphasized still more the hope of a future reward. 

Distinct references to resurrection are found before 
the time of Daniel. The references in Ezekiel and in 
Isaiah point to a national resuscitation: ^^ 

between 200-164 B. C. Terry (Biblical Apocalyptics, N. Y., 
1898, p. 183) favors the Maccabean time. Cf. Wildeboer: 
Lit. d. A. T., Gottingen, 1895, §27; also Bebrmann: Das B. 
Daniel, Gottingen, 1894; Kamphausen: Das B. Daniel und 
die neuere Geschichtsforschung, Lpzg., 1893. 

® Ib'n Esra, as well as Hitzig, interpret Dan. 12 : 2, 3 to 
refer to national resurrection. Schwally (D. Leben nach 
dem Tode, p. 135) thinks that it refers to the martyrs who 
had died for their religion during the persecutions of Antio- 
chus. Cheyne (Bampton Lectures, 1889, p. 406) states: 
" Not for all men — only for the chosen nation, for there is 
no natural immortality." 

•^ Cf. Prof. Toy's critical notes on Ez. (Engl, transl.) in 
P. B., note 5, p. 171 (Ez. 37:1-14); cf. Talm. Sanhedrin 92b. 



154 Resuekection in the Old Testament 

"Thy dead shall arise; the inhabitants of the dust shall 
awake, and shout for joy; 
For a dew of lights is Thy dew, and to life shall the earth 
bring the shades." ^ 

Cheyne ' believes that this passage has reference to 
the resurrection of individual Israelites, the lateness 
of the passage favors his view.^ 

One more reference to the revival of the nation is 
found in Hosea (6 : 2). This passage if not post-exilic, 
is not earlier than the exile: 

" After two days will He revive us : on the third day He 
will raise us up so that we shall live before Him." '" 

The passage commonly referred to as a clear expres- 
sion of individual resurrection is found in Job 19 : 25. 
But the study of the Hebrew text reveals that the 
word '•^S3, upon which the meaning of the passage 
hinges, has been mistranslated. The correct transla- 
tion shatters all hope that here is a clear statement 
of an individual resurrection."^ The word PN*3 in the 

' Isa. 26:19 (332 B. C.) ; cf. Cheyne's ed. of Heb. text in P. 
B., p. 76; cf. ibid., 25:8 (334 B. C). 

^ Cf . Cheyne's critical notes on Isa. (Engl, transl.) in P. 
B. on 26:19, p. 207, n. 25. 

« Cf. Smend and Kuenen (in ZATW, 1884, pp. 161 ff) assign 
Isa. chpts. 24-27 to the fourth century; also Duhm (D. B. 
Jesaia, p. XII), who argues for the close of the second cen- 
tury B. C. 

^"aCf. Smend (Lehrb. d. Alttest. Religionsgesch., 2d ed., 
p. 499) states that Job does not mention an eternal life after 
death. The hope that God will vindicate him after his 
death is what he understands under living again. Graetz 
argues (Monatssch., 1887, pp. 247 ff) that the author of Job 
had a conception of resurrection which he represents 
Eliphaz and Bildad as adopting, but Job himself as repudi 



Eesurkection in the Old Testament 155 

text " is connected with the ancient custom of blood- 
revenge/'^ and Job says — just as the nearest kin does 

ating. This view of Graetz seems to be strengthened by 
Jarchi, who lived in the 13th cent. (cf. Zunz: Zur Gesch. u. 
Lit., Berl., 1845, p. 463). In reference to Job 7:7 he says: 

"Since Job denied the resurrection of the dead." Cf. Stade 
(Ueber d. alttest. Vorst. v. Zust. n. d. Tode, Lpzg., 1S77) 
in loc. transl. 7i<: " Erloser," and adds that this does not 
imply the least hope of immortality, it expresses his firm 
faith in having his innocence proven by God after his death; 
Duhm (D. B. Hiob., pp. 102 ff) transl. h^^ " Blutriicher. 
When JoD dies, Duhm states he is looked upon as a crim- 
inal worthy of death. The Blood-avenger's duty is to save 
his innocence and honor, God is his nearest friend, because 
everybody has turned from him. Cf. Bathgen (Hiob. 
deutsch fiir Ungelehrte, Gott., 1898, p. 44, note), who agrees 
with Duhm; cf. Budde (Nowack), 1896, pp. 102 ff, who sees 
no reference to resurrection in 19:25. The reference is to a 
lawsuit in which witnesses and an advocate are present; the 
use of 7X3 in that sense is common; cf. Prov. 23:11; Ps. 
119:54; Jer. 50:34. 

^^ (M) D-ip^ "lar-^y innsi >n 'h^i ^np; '•;l^f5 

"a On D"|in 7^^ Blood-avenger, cf. Jastrow's paper 
publ. in the Independent, Aug, 27, 1896; also, Jastrow's 
Study of Rel., London, 1901, p. 339, Prof. Jastrow's con- 
clusion is that the goel is the avenger legitimately consti- 
tuted as such and recognized by the verdict of ancient 
Semitic society and that in the last stage the term meets 
us in a spiritualized meaning. At the time of the exile the 
Hebrews needed a goel. To whom could they look for the 
realization of this hope but to JHVH? God fhus became 
the goel. Job thus uses it in 19:25. Of the 33 passages in 
the O. T. in which goel is used, no less than 19 occur in 
exilic and post-exilic passages, viz,, Isa. 52:3,9; 48:20; 62:12; 
49:26; Ps. 107:2; 19:15, etc. On Din ^^<3 cf. Driver: 
Deuteronomy, N. Y„ 1895, p. 232; also Volk und Oettli: Die 
poetischen Hagiographen, Nordlingen, 1889, p. 51, note. 



156 Eesuekection in the Old Testament 

not rest until lie has avenged, thus will JHVH justify 
me in the eyes of the world. Job is confident that 
JHVH will exonerate His faithful servant before the 
world and thus testify to his innocence. Eesurrection 
is not suggested here. The passage is so well known 
that a lengthy reference to it may not seem out of 
place. There are two distinct views concerning this 
passage in Job. Some opine that it has reference to 
resurrection when Job^s innocence will be made known. 
— others look upon it as a declaration of Job's inno- 
cence, in this life he will be shown to be innocent/' 
possibly through having his fortune restored to him 
or through some other act of God. The view that holds 
the theory of resurrection is advocated in the oldest 
and most important translations/^ as well as by the 
Fathers of the Church," the other view has been the 
one commonly adopted by modern Biblical scholars." 

^=Cf. Szold: "R. V." in Menorah, N. Y., April, 1888, p. 338. 

^^ LXX. Vulgate. The Targum renders ^h^i with '•pnDT 
(Redeemer). Saadia transl. "human friend" (for Targum 
cf. Bacher: D. T. z. Hiob. in Frankel's Monatssch., 1871; for 
Saadia cf. Cohn: D. B. Hioh. von Gaon Saadia, Altona, 1889). 

"Cf. Hieronymous ad Paulin Ep. (LIII al GUI, §8); also 
Lagarde: Mittheil: Gott., 1887, II, pp. 189-237. 

" Cf. R. v., where Vindicator is placed in margin for Re- 
deemer of A. v.; cf. also Albertus Schultus (Liber Jobi 
1737), who transl. " vindicem meum." Similarly, Riehm 
(Alttest Theol., Halle, 1889, p. 361) and Ewald (D. poet. 
Biicher d. A. T.), Gott., 1836, vol. II. Cf. Cheyne (Job and 
Sol., p. 104): "The idea in Job is a supramundane justice, 
which will one day pronounce in favor of the righteous suf- 
ferer, not only in this world (ibid., 16:18; 19:25; chpt. 42), 
so that all men recognize his innocence, but also beyond the 
grave." Cf. also Cheyne: J. Q. R., vol. X, p. 13; Kennedy's 
art., " Goel," in Hastings' Diet, of the Bible, vol. II; Grobler: 



Resurrection in the Old Testament 157 

Siegfried considers 19 : 25-27b a gloss."*" He interprets 
the whole passage as follows: 

" I know that my avenger liveth, and that a surviving 
kinsman shall arise upon my grave as my defender. He 
will infuse new life into my skin, which had to suffer lep- 
rosy, and will thus give an actual proof of my rectitude 
(ibid., 42:10). And it is God Himself who shall avenge me, 
He shall raise me up out of the grave and make me whole 
again." 

Another passage (Ps. 16:10,11) is frequently re- 
ferred to as pointing to individual resurrection, but 
it has reference to the community and not to the indi- 
vidual:" 

" For Thou dost not commit me to Sheol, 
Nor sufferest Thy faithful ones to see the pit; 
Thou teachest me the path of life: 
In Thy presence is fulness of joys 
Fair gifts in Thy right hand forever." 

As stated above, there is but one passage in the Old 
Testament (Dan. 12:2, 3) that speaks of individual re- 
surrection. In the centuries that elapse between the 
close of the Old and the beginning of the New Testa- 

D. Ansichten liber Unsterblichkeit, etc., in Theol. Stud. u. 
Krit., 1879, pp. 651 ff, 670, 696 f. (For full discussion cf. 
Beer: D. Text d. B. Hiob., Marburg, 1897, pp. 124 ff.) 

^°Cf. Siegfried's ed. of Heb. text in P. B., notes, pp. 37 f: 
" The passage is a later gloss in which the resurrection of 
the just is considered a possibility (cf. Dan. 12:2, 3; 2 Mace. 
7:9, 11), contrary to the views put forth in the Bk. of Job 
with regard to Sheol (chpt. 3) ; cf. also J. Royer: D, Eschat- 
ologie d. B. Job, Freiburg, 1901. 

"Cf. Wellhausen: Notes to the transl. of Psalms in P. B., 
p. 167, n. 7; also Duhm: Die Psalmen, ad loc, p. 46; Baeth- 
gen (in Nowack's Hdk., 1892); all of these refer the Psalm 
to the whole community and not to the individual. 



158 Eesubeectiox in the Old Testament 

ment evidence abounds that individual resurrection had 
become the generally accepted belief. 

Before bringing proof from the Apocryphal and 
Apocalyptic literature^ a brief reference to that belief in 
the religion of Persia, which had much influence upon 
the Jewish belief^ would seem in place. Prof. Jackson, 
an Iranian scholar, says: '^ '^ The confident belief that 
the good will be rewarded after this life and the wicked 
will be punished; that right will triumph and evil will 
be destroyed: that the dead shall arise and live again: 
that the world shall be restored and joy and happiness 
shall reign supreme — this is a strain that runs through 
all the writings of Zoroastrianism for hundreds of years, 
or from a time before the Jews were carried up into 
captivity at Bab}ion until after the Koran of Moham- 
med and the sword of the Arabs had changed the whole 
religious history of Iran. The firm belief in a life here- 
after, the optimistic hope of regeneration of the pres- 
ent world and of a general resurrection of the dead, are 
characteristic articles in the faith of Persia and Anti- 
quity." According to the belief of the Parsees, the 
souls of the dead must pass the bridge of Cinvat 
(Bridge of Gathering). The wicked fall from it into 
Hell (the habitation of the Drukhs) where eternal 
misery (sadra) awaits them, while the righteous pass 
it safely and enter Heaven (Gara demanna, dwelling of 
song), where dwells Mazda with his courtiers and they 
live on N'aurvatal and Ameretat (food and drink of the 

IS Q^ ^^ rpj^g Ancient Persian Belief in a Future Life," in 
Biblical World, 1896, pp. 149 f; also his book, "Zoroaster," 
N. Y., 1899 (cf. Doctrine of a Future Life, J. A. 0. S., 1858, p 
8, and Doctrine of Resurrection, ibid., 16, pp. 38 f). 



Eesuerection in the Old Testament 159 

Immortals); then tinally a Savior (Saosyos) will appear 
who shall exterminate all evil, renew the world, annihi- 
late by his fire the wicked, and raise the dead/^ 

In discussing the eschatological conceptions of the 
Apocryphal and Apocalyptic literatures Ecclesiasticus, 
or the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach, offers a fruitful 
field. The book is cast in a purely Jewish mould. In 
the Talmud the book is referred to as Ben Sira (sn^D p) . 
Talmud, Midrash and New Testament quote from 
Ecclesiasticus without giving due credit.'" The book 
contains proverbs, maxims and moral lessons gathered 
by Joshua (Jesus) the son of Sirach, who was a con- 
temporary of the High-priest Simon II (219-109 
B. C.) Josh.ua's grandson migrated from Judsea to 
Egypt, where he translated (132 B. C.) into the Greek 
tongue the work of his grandsire, that the book might 
become accessible to those ignorant of the original. 
Fortunately for science, a part of the original text 

^^ Cf . Kohut: Ueber die Jiidische Angelologie und Daemon- 
ologie, Lpzg., 18G6; Tiele: Gesch. d. Rel. im Altertum, Gotha, 
1898, pp. 161 ff; Huebschman: "Die parsische Lehre vom 
Jenseits " in Jhrbch. f. Prot. Theol., 1879, V, pp. 114, 222 f. 

-"Talm. Chagigah 13a; Jebamoth 63b; B. Bathra 98b; 
Mishnali Sanhedrin 10:1; corap. Luke 18:22 with Ecclus. 
29:4. For citations from Ecclus. in Rabbinic literature cf. 
Duke's Rabbinisclie Blumenlese, Lpzg., 1844, pp. 67 ff ; Joel 
Blicke in d. Religionsgesch., Breslau, 1880, pp. 71 ff (Pt. I); 
Hamburger: R. Encycl. Suppl., 1886, pp. 83 ff; Schechter: 
The Quotations from Ecclus. in Rabbinic lit., J. Q. R. Ill, 
pp. 682-706; Cowley and Neubauer: The Original Hebrew of 
a portion of Ecclus., Oxford, 1897, pp. xix-xxx; Schloegel: 
Ecclus. 39:12; 49-16, Vindobonae, 1891. For citations from 
Ecclus. in Christian lit. cf. Werner in Theol. Quartalschriit, 
1872, pp. 265 ff. 



160 Resurrection in the Old Testament 

(39 : 15; 49 : 11), from which Saadia, the Goan, a thou- 
sand years ago, made several quotations, and which 
had been regarded as lost, was discovered by Profs. 
Schechter and Nenbauer.^' Like the authors of the 
Biblical Proverbs, Ben Sira recommends the acquisi- 
tion of wisdom, faith in God, and the practice of kind- 
ness and charity. Eetribution, without any exception, 
seems to be confined to this life; in this respect he 
stands upon Old Testament ground: 

" Fear not death," exclaims Sirach, " that is destined for 

you; 
Remember that they who went before thee and they who 

come after thee will meet the same fate. 
This is the portion of all flesh from God, and why wilt 

thou rebel against the decree of God? 
Whether thou wilt live ten, hundred or a thousand years — 
One cannot quarrel about life's duration in Sheol." - 

Levi's translation, which is supported by LXX, " there 
are no chastisements for life in Sheol," is doubtful; 
]\yssers rendering '^^^nicht kann man hadern iiber die 

^'Cf. Schechter and Taylor: The Wisdom of Ben Sira, 
Cambridge, 1899; Margoliouth: The Original Hebrew of 
Ecclus., London, 1899; Bacher: "An Hypothesis about the 
Heb. Fragments of Sirach," J. Q. R., XII, pp. 92 f; Toy: 
" Remarks on the Heb. Text of Ben Sira," J. A. O. S. 23, pp. 
38 ff; Smend: D. heb. Fragment d. Weisheit d. Jesus ben 
Sira; Zunz: Die gottesd. Vortrage, second ed., pp. 101, 199; 
Rj^ssel: D. Sprliche Jesus' d. Sohnes Sirachs in Kautzsch's 
A. u. P., vol. I, Einl., pp. 230 ff; Peters: D. jiingst W^ieder- 
aufgefundene heb. text. d. B. Ecclus., Freiburg, 1902. 

^41:3, 4: 

fir) Ev7ia^ov Kpifia Qavdrov, fiv?/(jd^7jri Trporepcjv cov Kal ecxo.ruv, tovto 
TO Kpifia Trapd Kvpiov -irdari aapKc, Kal ri aTravaivr} ev evdoKta vipiarov. 
elre 6eKa^ elre eKarbv, are x'l^ia err], ovk eoriv ev gSov e2.ey/xbg ^oyg. 



Resureection" in the Old Testament 161 

Lebenslange in Sheol ^^ seems to be more in keeping 
with the meaning of the whole preceding passage/* 

" Give, and take and sanctify thy soul, for there is no 
seeking of dainties in the grave." -* 

" Who shall praise the Most High in the grave, instead of 
them which live and give thanks." ^^ 

Ben Sira supplements EzekieFs teaching concerning 
individual retribution by seeking to cover its obvious 
defects with his theory of the solidarity of the family. 
A man^s wickedness must receive its recompense either 
in his own person in this life, or, failing in this, in 
the person of his surviving progeny, since r'etribution 
in unknown to Sheol : 

" Do not praise anyone happy before his death. 
For man shall be known in his children. -'^ 

" Children curse a godless parent, 
For they are despised on his account." ^^ 

In the Wisdom of Solomon (100-50 B. C.) '' we dis- 
cern that the conception of immortality is fully devel- 

"'' Cf . Ryssel's transl. in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. I. 
=*Ibid., 14:16: 

dbg Kal /Id^f, Kal dTrdrrjaav ryv ipvp^yv aov, otl ovk. ecriv evd'Sov l^7jT?)aai 

^^Ibid., 17:27; comp. Ps. 115:17, 18. 

^^'Ibid., 11:28; cf. Ryssel's transl. in Kautzsch's A u. P., 
vol. I, p. 294, note. 

-'Ibid., 41:7; comp. 41:6. 

^^ Cf. Siegfried's transl. in Kautzsch's A u. P., vol. I, p. 
479, who favors 100-50 B. C. Similarly Haupt (cf. Oriental 
Studies, p. 251); Konig (Binl., §107), 150 B. C; Pfleiderer 
{ Jhrbch. f. protest. Theol., XV, 2, 1889, pp. 319 f) places date 
in the first pre-Christian cent. 

11 



162 Resueeection in the Old Testament 

oped.^ This may be due to the fact that the author 
shows familiarity with Platonic and Stoic thought, with 
Greek poetry and science.^'' From Plato and his school 
he adopts the doctrine that matter is eternal (11: 7), 
and that this eternal matter is essentially evil, and 
that, therefore, the human body is evil : " For the 
corruptible body presses down the soul/^ ^' That the 
soul is pre-existing and divine shows also the influence 
of Platonic speculation : " For I was a witty child, and 
had a good disposition — yea, rather, being good, I came 
into a body undefiled." ^' 

From the Stoics he seemed to have derived the four 
cardinal virtues — temperance, prudence, justice, and 
fortitude (8 : 7). There is no reference to a personal 
Messiah, but to a Messianic or rather a Theocratic 
Kingdom (3:7, 8). Owing to evil that is inherent in 
matter, there can be no resurrection of the body, the 
soul is the proper self, it alone is immortal, because 

2^ In the I Bk. of Mace. (100-70 B. C.) there is no reference 
to immortality. The book seems to have been written in 
Hebrew (cf. Kautzsch's new transl. in his A. u. P., vol. I, p. 
25); Niese: Kritik d. beiden Makkabaerbiicher, Berl., 1900. 

^^ Cf. Siegfried's transl. in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. I, p. 
476; Cornill (Binl., 4th ed., p. 278) sees besides Platonic and 
Stoic influences traces of Pythagoras and Heraclites; 
Schlirer: The Jewish People, II, Vol. Ill, p. 233; Cheyne 
(Origin of Psalter, p. 411) speaks also of a neo-Platonic in- 
fluence. 

^^9 :15a (comp. ibid., 1:4): 

(p-d-aprov yap cufia ^apvvei ipv^f/i^. 

^^8:19, 20 (comp. ibid., 9:15; also Siegfried's transl. in 
Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. I, p. 477). 



Resurrection- m the Old Testament 163 

divine."^ The book has been aptly called " a Gospel of 
Immortality." Thus we read : 

" For God created man for incorriiption." ^* 

" But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, 
And there shall no torment touch them. 
In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die, 
And their departure was taken to be their hurt, 
And their journeying away from us to be their ruin. 
But they are in peace. 

For though they be punished in the sight of men, 
Yet is their hope full of immortality." ^= 

" But the righteous live forever. 
And in the Lord is their reward, 
And the care of them with the Most High." ^° 

The Pessimism that in course of time is engendered 
by the belief that the physical nature of man is evil 
and thus is an obstacle to the development of the 
higher life and its virtues is overcome by the author 
by his teachings that wisdom is the redeemer of the 
soul from the bondage of the physical body; that all 
things are ordered by a Providence, and that God is 
the Savior of all: 

" When I considered these things in myself, 
And took thought in my heart. 
How that immortality lieth in kinship to wisdom." ^' 

"Because of her (wisdom) I shall have immortality."^"* 

^^Cf. Wiinsche: " D. Vorst. v. Zust. n. d. Tode nach Apok- 
ryphen, etc.," in Jhrbch. f. protest. Theol., 1880; also Grober: 
" D. Ansichten iiber Unsterblichkeit, etc.," in Theol. Stud, 
u. Krit., 1879, pp. 651 fC; 670; 696 ff. 

«*2:23: 

oTi 6 Qebg enTiae tov dvd-puTrov £7r' acpd-apaia. 

"='3:1-4. ^''5:15. ^^8:17. ^^8:13. 



164 Eestjeeectiox in the Old Testament 

And again: 

" And the love of wisdom is observance of her laws; 
And the giving heed to her laws is an assurance of incor- 

ruption; 
And incorruption brings near unto God." ^^ 

" For thou lovest all things that are, and abhorrest nothing 
which Thou hast made, 
For never wouldst Thou have made anything, if Thou 
hadst hated it, 

For Thou sparest all, for they are Thine, O Lord, Thou 
lover of souls." ^ 

If Tve except the works of Josephns and Philo, the 
Wisdom of Solomon is the most important contribu- 
tion to the Grseco-Judaic literature. That the book 
was written in Greek and not in Hebrew seems to be 
fairly well established.*^ 

The book gains in importance by the fact that some 
regard it as an answer to Ecclesiastes, as opposed to 
some of its teachings. Thus Prof. Haupt states : " " It 
is true that the Wisdom of Solomon seems to have 
been designed as Anti-Ecclesiastes. Of course that is 
conclusive only as far as the genuine portions of Eccle- 

^^6:18, 19. ^ni: 24-26. 

^ Cf. Margoliouth (J. of. Asiatic Soc, 1890, pp. 263 ff), who 
believes that the original was Hebrew. This view is refuted 
by Freudenthal (What is the Original Language of the 
Wisdom of Sol.?) J. Q. R. 111:722 ff. Siegfried in transl. of 
Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. I, p. 476, favors a Greek original; 
cf. also Thumb: D. griechische sprache im Zeitalter d. Hel- 
lenismus, Strassburg, 1901. 

*^ Oriental Studies, p. 251; also Barthauer: Optimismus u. 
Pess. im B. Koheleth, Halle, 1900, p. 12; Ginsburg: Qoheleth, 
London, 1861, p. 28. 



Kesueeection in the Old Testament 165 

siastes are concerned. The theological interpretations 
may be considerably later and perhaps partly based on 
the Book of Wisdom/^ 

In the Second Book of Maccabees/' a professed 
abridgment of a larger work in five volumes by Jason 
of Cyrene, the idea of resurrection is expressed in clear 
language: Thus the second of the seven brethren ad- 
dressed Antiochus before he was to lay down his life 
for his faith : " Thou, miscreant dost release us out 
of this present life, but the King of the world shall 
raise us up who have died for His laws unto an eternal 
revival of life." ^ In the same strain speaks the 
youngest of the seven who had witnessed the martyr- 
deaths of his six brothers : " For these our brethren, 
who have endured a short pain, have now died under 
God's covenant of everlasting lif e."^ ^' The mother who 
saw her seven sons slain in one day bare it with good 
courage because she hoped in the Lord. And she ex- 
horted every one of them and inspired them with cour- 
age by saying unto them : " I cannot tell how ye came 
into my womb, for I neither gave you breath nor life 
. . . But doubtless the Creator of the world . . . will 
also of His own mercy give you breath and life again 



*^Cf. Kamphausen's transl. in Kaiitzsch's A. u. P., vol. I, 
p. 84. 
"7:9. 

*=7:36; comp. ibid., 7:11. 
*« 7: 20-23. 



CHAPTEE YIII 

The Talmud 

The Optimism and Pessimism of the Talmud is im- 
portant for our investigation. The Talmud, it must 
be remembered, does not represent an independent 
thought-movement in the life of the Jew. Old Testa- 
ment ideas and conceptions we find here developed 
under the influence of ever changing political and so- 
cial conditions. Then, parts of the Talmud^ fall 
within New Testament times and help to a better un- 
derstanding of the teachings of the New Testament." 

To trace a system of philosophy and theology in the 
Talmud is nigh impossible. This becomes patent when 
one considers that the work covers a period of eight 
centuries (300 B. C. - 500 C. E.) and embodies the 
thoughts and opinions of several hundred persons.' 

^Rab Ashi (^t^'X 21) (Surah 367-427) was the first com- 
piler of the Talmud; the compilation was finished by Rab 
Abinah (nvni< 21) in 499 C. E., who was assisted by R. 
Jose ('•Df''")) the head of the Academy of Pumbaditha. 

- Cf. article " Talmud in relation to early Christianity," 
J. A. O. S., X, pp. 100 f. 

^Cf. Mielziner: Introd. to the Talmud, Cin., 1894; Weiss: 
VK^-ini in in (The mst. of Jewish Tradition), Wien, 
1873, 1876, 18S5; Schechter: "The Hist, of Jewish Tra- 
dition" in Studies in Judaism, Phila., 1896, chpt. VII; 
Deutsch: "The Talmud" in Literary Remains, N. Y., 1874, 
pp. 1-59; Fischer: Bibel und Talmud, Lpzg., 1881; Ehren- 
theil: Der Geist. d. Talmud, Budapest, 1887; Darmesteter: 
The Talmud, Phila., 1897; Scholien: z. babyl. Talmud, Prag, 
1859; Braunschweiger: Die Lehrer d. Mischnah, Frankfurt, 
1890; Ehrmann: Aus Palastina und Babylon, Wien, 1882, 



168 The Talmud 

The Talmud is less optimistic than the Old Testa- 
ment. This is possibly diie to the political conditions 
that obtained among the Jews after the death of Alex- 
ander the Grreat. The sad present contrasted with the 
past, when they lived in their own land and were ruled 
over b}^ their own kings, made their lot seem hard and 
cruel. Added to the loss of political freedom we must 
hasten to add the disappointment of their Messianic 
hopes, yet, in spite of all, the optimistic view of life 
prevails in the literature of the Eabbis. Thus we read: 

j<n2 rh:22h inx im N-12 i6 lobirn 
"All that God has created,^"' said E. Jehudah (300 
C. E.), "is of use; '' he then continues more explicitly, 
" He created the snail for healing wounds, the fly to 
heal the poisonous bite of the hornet; the mosquito 
for the bite of the serpent; the serpent for leprosy; 
and the spider to heal the bite of the scorpion '' (Talm. 
Sabbath TTb). In another passage we read (Jomah 76a): 
" E. Akiba (who died 136 C. E.) said: ' Man ought to 
accustom himself to say — all that happens, happens 
for the best " '' (comp. Berachoth 60b). In a few brief 
Avords is expressed a Theodicy. God, being the Cre- 
ator, suffices to consider ever}i:hing that is and that 
happens as being useful to man. Sublime faith in 
Providence is expressed in many passages. 

" He who made the day wiU provide daily sustenance " 
(Mechilta* to Ez. 16:4). "He who still has some 

*Cf. Schiirer: A Hist, of the Jewish People, 2d ed., I, vol. 
I, p. 145; also Zunz: D. gottesd. Vortr. 2d ed., p. 54; Geiger: 
"Mechilta u. Sifre " in his Ztsch., 1866, pp. 125 ff. 



The Talmud 169 

bread in his basket and asks what shall I eat on the 
morrow, has little faith '' (Talm. Sotah 48b). 

In regard to the enjoyment of life's blessings the 
Talmndic doctors hold the Old Testament view. Many 
benedictions ^ have come do^vn from Talmudical times. 
Whatever one enjoys, be it in the way of eating or 
drinking, or some pleasing or remarkable sight, an 
agreeable smell, a festivity on a joyful event, or the 
performance of a divine commandment; whatever be- 
falls one, whether it be pleasant or unpleasant — all is 
to be regarded as sent from above, and, therefore, is 
expressed by a suitable benediction. 

After the destruction of the Second Temple some 
abstained from meat and wine, because they were no 
longer used in the offerings on God's altar. They re- 
nounced all pleasures in the belief that their doing 
so was pleasing to God. Eabbi Jochanan ben Saccai 
(c. 50 C. E.), one of the famous disciples of Hillel and 
the foremost leader of his time, asked those who had 
renounced meat and wine, " ^Waj do you abstain from 
them ? " And as they pointed to the altar in ruin in 
explanation of their abstinence, the Eabbi replied: 
*' Then you ought to abstain from eating bread and 
from drinking water on account of the former meat 
offering, nor eat fruit on account of the former first 
fruits. Brethren," continued the Eabbi, "you ought 
not to forget the sanctuary but that is no reason why 
you should turn your back upon the world'" (Baba 
Bathra 60b). 

^Cf. Dembitz: Jewish Services, Phila., 1898, pp. 140, 203, 
348 f; also Friedlander: The Jewish Rel., London, 1891, 
p. 442. 



170 The Talmud 

While the Sages of the Talmud warn us against over- 
indulgence of all kinds, in pleasure and in the gratifica- 
tion of bodily apj^etites, they strongly disapprove of as- 
cetic practices. In this spirit they interpret the command- 
ments of the Torah, " Ye shall live by them (i. e. the 
commandments), and not die through them^' (Yoma 
85b) . In Erubin 54a we read : " If thou hast the means 
to enjoy life, enjoy it." In Sabbath 30b Ben Soma 
(c. 120 C. E.) states : " The whole world has been 
created that man may find pleasure." 

About marriage there are many sayings, all looking 
upon it as a duty: 

" It is a religious duty for man to marry " (Kiddushin 
2b). 

" To be unmarried is to live without joy, without blessing, 
kindness, religion, and peace" (Yebamoth 62a). ^a 

" As soon as one marries his sins decrease " (Yebamoth 
63b). 

" He who lives without a wife is no perfect man " (Bera- 
choth 8b; Yebamoth 63a). 

" Prayers should be recited only when one is in a cheerful 
frame of mind " (Talm. Berachoth 31a). 

" He who denies himself the use of wine is a sinner " 
(Talm. Taanith 11a). 

" God reveals Himself to man only in the gladness that 
comes to him from some kind deed " (Talm. Sabbath 30b). 

" No one ought to afflict himself by needless fasting " 
(Talm. Taanith 22b); comp. Matt. 6:17; 9:14 f; Luke 2:28; 

^a The Apocalypse of Baruch holds the view on marriage 
common to the N. T. (Matt. 24:19; Luke 23:29) : "Ye bride- 
grooms enter not into your chambers; ye women, pray not 
that ye may bear children; for the barren shall rejoice " 
(Baruch 10:13, 14). Cf. Ryssel's transl. in Kautzsch's A. u. 
P., vol. II; also Kneucker: D. B. Baruch, Lpzg., 1879. 



The Talaitd ITl 

5:33; Acts 14:23, where fasting is regarded as somethiiig 
that is pleasing to God. 

"R. Jehuda the Saint (c. 200 C. E.), weighing the good 
and the evil concluded that there is more good than evil *'' 
(Talm. Jomah T6a). From the same Rabbi it is reported 
" that when he thought of the day of death he would intone 
a song" (Talm. Berachoth 10a). 

The classical passage for Optimism is found in the 
discussion that took place between the Schools of 
Shammai and Hillel (c. 80 C. E.). For two years and 
a half the disciples of these rival Academies discussed 
the subject of human existence. One side maintained 
that existence is to be preferred to non-existence, the 
other, that non-existence is preferable. 
1^ m: 'n'n «i3:b^ nm* Kin3 xixr nivh h m3 'u n*n) 

(Embin 13b snn: N^r*^ inr xi2:r Dis^ 
A vote was finally taken and the School of Hillel favor- 
ing existence won the contest/ 

There are some pessimistic sentiments expressed in 
Midrash Eabboth ' to Eccl. 1:13: 

n*2 imsn ^vm cSirn \*2 xw ens px 

" No one departs this life having had half of his wishes 
fulfilled." 

The Scriptural verse (Gen. -IT : 29) ni'^'? h^r^*' 't?/ n^W^ 
'•'And the time drew near that Israel must die/*' is in- 
terpreted by the Midrash by quoting I Chron. 29: 15: 
pXJT^r i:*::* Svr "As a shadow are our days on earth." 
The Midrash then makes the following i eflections : 

*Cf. Eccl. 4:3; also Hartmann: D. Rel. d. Geistes. Berl., 
1882, pp. 180 £f. 

'A coll. of Midrashim on Pentateuch and the 5 Megilloth 
(c. 600 C. E.); cf. Schiirer: A Hist, of the Jewish People, 
2d ed., I, Vol. I, p. 147; Zunz: D. gottesd. Yortr., 2d ed., pp. 
183, 195; Lerner: Anlage u. Quellen d. B. R., Franki., 1882. 



172 The Talmud 

^ni3 h^ "i^^^D ^^ were our days only as the shadow of a 
wall," or I'p^x h^ li?^^^ " as the shadow of a tree/' but 
alas, ^)V h^ i^--^^ n^« " our days are as the shadow of 
a bird." ' 

Though the Talmud is mainly a development of Old 
Testament ideas, yet it contains views that are fre- 
quently more in touch with the New Testament than 
with the Old Testament. The subject of suffering may 
serve as an illustration. While in the Old Testament 
suffering is the result of sin, or of value as a discipline, 
the Talmud, like the New Testament, regards suffering 
as an almost desirable end per se. The phrase hl^ |niD^ 
nnnx " Sufferings of love " is common enough in Eab- 
binical literature.^ Thus we read: " 

" Beloved is suffering for by it fatherly love is shown to 
man by God; by it man obtains purification and atonement; 
by it Israel came into possession of the best gifts, such as 
the Torah, the Holy Land, and eternal life," In another 
place we read. "R. Jehu da b, Lakish (200 C. E.) said: 'All 
those who rejoice in the sufferings that come to them bring 
salvation to the world'" (Taanith 8a). 

"Whom God loves He chastises"" (Berachoth 5a). 

" Sufferings are beloved, for as sacrifices atone, thus do 
sufferings atone. Sufferings have a greater atoning power 
than sacrifices " ^2 (Sifre, §32)." 

In keeping with the conception of " Sufferings of 
love " terrestrial happiness is viewed by some as a 

8 To Bereshith, chpt. 96. 
^Talrn. Kiddushin 40b; Sanhedrin 101a. 
" Talm. Berachoth 5a; ibid., 60b. 
"Cf. Prov. 3:12; Heb. 12:6; Rev. 3:19. 
^^Cf. Rashi ad loc, where jniD^ pn''nn is explained 
with piDiDtJ^; also Berachoth 5a \''\i1'0)2 pilD^ 
" Midrash on Numbers and Deuteronomy. 



The Talmud 173 

rather questionable gift: "He who passes forty days 
without discomfort has received his full share in the 
world." " In explanation of the Scriptural passage 
(Gen. 37: 1^ P) "And Jacob dwelt in the land of his 
father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan," the Mid- 
rash says : " " Jacob intended to live quietly after hav- 
ing been delivered from Laban and Esau." And God 
said to Jacob: "Is it not enough that the pious are 
kept for future life, shall they also be without care 
here ? " After this came the misfortune with Joseph. 
A similar thought finds expression in Talmud San- 
hedrin (101a). Eabbi Eliezer (50-120 C. E.) was lying 
on his bed of sickness suffering excruciating pain. 
While his friends and disciples were overwhelmed with 
grief seeing his sufferings, Eabbi Akiba alone was in 
a happy frame of mind. The sufferer chagrined asked 
him whether he did not sympathize with him in his 
sufferings, upon which Akiba replied : " When thou 
wast prosperous in everything, when thou hadst corn 
and wine, oil and honey abundantly, I was uneasy on 
thy account thinking that thou hadst already enjoyed 
thy world, but now seeing thee in agony my fear van- 
ishes and I am filled with joy." 

A most peculiar development of this conception of 
suffering is that the suffering of one person can atone 
for the sins of another. Thus we find in Sanhedrin 39a, 
" God punishes Ezekiel that Israel may be cleansed 
from its sins." Similarly in the Pesikta :" " E. Chiiah 
b. Abba (279-330) said: " On the first day of Msan the 

" Talm. Erach 16a. 
^= Midr. Rabboth to Gen. 84. 

^*Midr. of the 4th Christian century; cf. Buber's ed., Lyck, 
1868, p. 174; Karpeles, Geiger, Hamburger favor 700 C. E. 



174 The Talmud 

sons of Aaron died, and what is the reason that their 
death is remembered on the Day of Atonement? To 
teach, that as the Day of Atonement has power to 
atone, so does the death of a righteous person atone." 
Similarly we read in Talm. Sabbath 33b: 
" If there are righteous men in a generation, they are 
made to atone for the sins of their generation; if there be 
none the children must atone for the sins of others." 

Here we stand upon New Testament ground. Christian- 
ity (N. T.) makes Jesus the atonement for the sins of man- 
kind, and finds proof for his Messiahship in his sufferings 
(cf. Matt. 16:27, 18:31, 22:22; Luke 17:31; Acts 17:3). 

Resurrection of the body did not become a doctrine in 
Judaism until the time of Moses Maimonides (1135-1204). 
He makes it one of the thirteen articles of faith: 

D^n^n n:nFi r\^nm nj^h^ n>iJDX3 ppxo ''^^? 

" I believe with perfect faith that there will be a resur- 
rection of the dead."" 

Jost asserts that resurrection was already an article 
of faith in the time of the Mishnah,'^ for the second of 
" the eighteen benedictions " refers to the quickening 
of the dead.^^ He also refers to a Boraitha^^^ which 
prescribes the following benediction at the sight of a 
burial ground : " Praised be He . . . who has caused 
you to die in righteousness, and will restore you again 
to life in righteousness.'' 

"Maimonides: Comm. on Mishnah; cf. Singer: Daily 
Prayer Book, London, 1892, p. 90. 

^^Gesch. d. Judent, Lpzg., 1858, vol. H, p. 176; Zunz: 
Gottesd. Vort., 2d ed., Prankf., 1892, pp. 379 f ; Talm. Bera- 
choth 33a. 

" Cf. Dalman: Christentum u. Judentum, Lpzg., 1898, 
p. 18. 

^*a Cf. Talm. Berachoth 58b. 



The Talmud 175 

The Pharisees^ to which sect most of the teachers 
belonged^ believed in resurrection and in future life. 
" God has created two worlds '^ — N2n d'?1i;i nrn D^ir — 
" this world, and the world beyond/' '° That the Sad- 
ducees denied resurrection seems to be commonly ac- 
cepted." Josephus claims that the Sadducees believed 
that the soul perished with the body, and thus they 
not only denied resurrection but also the immortality 
of the soul. " They also take away the belief of the 
immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments 
and rewards in Hades.'' " Graetz does not accept the 
statement of Josephus that the Sadducees denied im- 
mortality.^ 

The oldest of the Talmudic compilations, the Mish- 
nah, Mechilta, Sifra and Sifre speak, indeed, of "this 
world," " the world to come,'' and " the days of the 
Messiah," but whether they had any clear and definite 
conceptions as to the immortality of the soul is doubt- 
ful. The passages that refer to some future existence 
are many: 

-«Cf. Talm. Menachoth 29b; cf. Josephus: Antiq., XVIII 
3:5. 

--^Cf. Matt. 22:23; Mark 12:8; Luke 20:27; Acts 23:8; 
also Wellhausen: D. Pharisaer u. Saducaer, Greifswald, 
1874; Schechter's ed. of Aboth Rabbi Nathan, Vienna, 1887, 
p. 26; Geiger (Urschrift, 1857, pp. 334 f; also Lesestiicke 
aus d. Mischna, Bresl., 1845), who states that the Samari- 
tans also denied resurrection; Kohn: Samaritanische 
Studien, Breslau, 1868; Bollinger: Heidenthum u. Judent., 
Regensburg, 1857, pp. 745 ff. 

^-Bell: Jud., II, 8:14; comp. Antiq., XVIII, 1:4. 

^Cf. Gesch. d. Juden (2d ed.), pp. 456 ff; also Griine- 
baum: D. Sittenlehr© d. Judent., Mannheim, 1867, pp. 93 ff. 



176 The Talmud 

" The wise men say: the expression, ' the days of thy life,' 
refer to this world, and 'all the days of thy life' to the 
world to come" (Mishnah Berachoth 1:5b). 

Similarly, in Mislinah Aboth 4: 23: " This world is 
like a vestibule before the world to come, prepare thy- 
self in the vestibule that thou mayest be admitted into 
the hall/^ In the following sentence we read : 

" Better is one hour of repentance and good work in this 
world, than all the life of the world to come; better is one 
hour of refreshment of spirit in the world to come than all 
the life of this world." ^* 

" The generation of the Flood has no share in the life to 
come." 2° 

" He who makes himself little in this world for the sake 
of the Law is made great in the world to come; and he who 
is a servant for its sake in this world is made free in the 
world to come." ^ 

" R. Joseph was ill and had fainted away; when he recov- 
ered consciousness, his father asked him what he had seen 
in his swoon. The son replied: 'I saw the world upside 
down, the humble above, the proud below.' Then the father 
said : ' My son, thou hast beheld the world to come.' " ^'' 

" Every man gets the mansion he merits " (Talm. Sabbath 
152a). Comp. " In my Father's house are many mansions " 
(John 14:2). 

" All Israel has a share in the world to come . . . but 
these have no share — he who denies that resurrection is 
taught in the Torah . . . " ^^ 

^*Cf. Taylor: Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, Cambridge, 
1897. 

=^^ Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:3. 

'« Talm. B. Mezia 85b. 

"Talm. Pesachim 50a; B. Bathra 10b; comp. Matt. 19:30; 
Mark 10:16; Luke 13:30. 

^« Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1. 



The Talmud IT/ 

Whether this was taught on account of the SadduceeS;, 
or on account of young Christianity, the former 
denying resurrection, the latter claiming it as a peculiar 
Christian doctrine, is difficult to determine. The ex- 
plicitness of the statement would lead one to believe 
that it was framed for some special purpose. We also 
read, and that may be possibly directed against 
Christianity which claimed salvation only for those who 
believed its tenets. 

snn Qh)vh \hn nrh c^^ nhwn m»ix >pnv 

" The righteous of all nations will inherit a portion of the 
world to come." ^■' 

In Berachoth COb: " My God, the soul thou gavest 
me is pure; thou didst create it; thou didst form it; 
thou didst breathe it into me; thou preservest it within 
me, and thou wilt take it from me, but wilt restore it 
to me hereafter." 

The Midrash and many parts of the Liturgy convey 
the idea that the Talmudic doctors clung to the belief 
in the advent of a Messiah."" Thus we read in the 
Liturgy:'^ 

" Speedily cause the offspring of David, Thy servant, to 
flourish, and let his horn be exalted by Thy salvation, be- 
cause we wait for Thy salvation all day." 

'MR. Joshua b. Chananyah, 60-120 C. E.) Tosephta San- 
hedrin XIII; comp, Maimonides: " Yad Chasaka," T'shuba 
3:5; M'lachim 8:11. 

2°Cf. Mielziner: Introd. to the Talm., Cin., 1894, §1; also 
Hirsch: Religionsphil., pp. 627 fC. 

^^Cf. Singer: Daily Prayerbook, London, 1892, p. 49; also 
Zunz: D. Gottesd. Vortr., 2d ed., p. 380. 
12 



178 The Talmud 

" And to Jerusalem, the city, return in mercy . . . and 
speedily." ^^ 

" The prophets, all of them, foretold the coming of the 
Messiah, not the future (beyond the grave), no eye but that 
of God has seen it" (Talm. Berachoth 34b). 

There is reason to believe that some of the Talmudic 
sages were influenced by the speculations of Plato in 
their belief that all knowledge is but reminiscence. 
'^^At the moment a child is born/^ we are told, " an 
angel places his forefinger npon the infantas month 
and the touch causes the soul to forget what it had 
learnt in heaven. The depression on the upper lip 
is the mark left by the angeFs finger." ^ 

One is reminded of Tima^us in Plato when coming 
across the Talmudic passage : " The son of David 
cannot appear until all the souls have passed into 
bodies." '' 

Originally the Messiah was regarded as a deliverer 
from oppression; he was to restore the glories of the 
ancient Commonwealth. After centuries of political 
dependence the Messiah becomes a very part of Israel's 
history. He existed not only before the creation of 
the world, but for his sake the world was called into 
being: "The world v/as created on account of the 
Messiah." '' " Seven things were created prior to the 
creation of the world: the Torah, repentance, Para- 

'''Cf. Singer: Daily Prayerbook, p. 50; comp. Maimonides: 
" Yad Chasaka," M'lachim 11:1. 

^^Cf. Talm. Niddah 30b; Jebamoth 62a. 

='*Talm. Jebamoth 63b; cf. Joel Blicke in die Religions- 
gesch., vol. I, p. 118; Kalisch: Path and Goal, London, 1880, 
p. 359. 

^^Cf. Talm. Nedarim 39b; Pesachim 54a; Sanhedrin 98b. 



The Talmud 179 

dise, Gehenna, the Throne of Glory, the Sanctuary 
and the Name of the Messiah/' '' 

While the Mishnah seems to be comparatively free 
from demonology, the Talmud shows Babylonian and 
Persian influence in its views of angels and demons. 
This is due to the large Academies that were located 
in Babylonia and that drew teachers, as well as pupils, 
from those Jews that had lived in Babylon for cen- 
turies. Thus Abaye who lived in Pumpadita, where one 
of the large schools was located, said: "Formerly 
I believed that the custom to pour water upon the 
ground, which had been used for washing hands after 
the meal, was due to cleanliness, now I discovered 
that it is done in order that the evil spirit might not 
find rest on the place.'' In Talmud (Meilah 1Tb) R. 
Simeon b. Jochai (150 C. E.) is said to possess the 
power to cast out demons. While E. Simeon was jour- 
neying to Eome in the company of another Eabbi, to 
secure the repeal of an edict hostile to the exercise 
of Judaism, a demon, called Ben Temelion, met them. 
" May I go with you ? " asked the demon. " Let the 
portent come whenever it be," answered E. Sim- 
eon. Thereupon the demon hurried on in front and 
entered into the daughter of the emperor who went 
mad. The daughter then called for E. Simeon who ban- 
ished the demon. In Berachoth (58a) Satan is a slan- 
derer, accuser, tempter and general mischiefmaker."' 

^^^Cf. Hirscli: Religionsphil., Lpzg,, 1842, p. 852; Joel: Bl. 
i. d. Religionsgesch., vol II, pp. 181 ff. 

^^Comp. B. Bathra 16a; Nedarim 32b; Sabbath 119b; also 
Wiesner: Scholien z. Babyl. Talm., Prag, 1859, pp. 8 ff ; 
Joel: " Der Aberglaube," in JabresbericM des jiid. Theol. 
Seminars, Breslau, 1881, pp. 69 ff; Joel: Bl. i. d. Religions- 
gesch., vol. I, p. 117. 



180 The Talmud 

In the same Treatise^^ we are told that a sick person, a 
groom, a bride^ and a woman in confinement, a mourner 
and a scholar, while unmolested during the day, had to 
protect themselves from demons at night. In Mishnah 
x\both 5 : 6 God created in the twilight of the sixth da}^ 
the demons (mazziqin or nocentes). 

The division of the Biblical Sheol into Paradise and 
Gehenna, under the influence of Christianity, which 
again was influenced by heathendom, is complete. 
When E. Jochanan was dying, his disciples who had 
gathered around the teacher's couch asked: "Light of 
Israel, why dost thou weep ? " The teacher replied : 
" Two paths are open before me, the one leading to 
Paradise, the other to Gehenna. I know not which of 
them will be my doom.'' ^^ 

In another place we find : *° " God created Eden that 
the pious might rejoice, and Gehenna for the sinners." 

"All those who go into Gehenna ascend again into 
Paradise." *' 

" The judgment of the sinners in Gehenna lasts 
twelve months." ^ 

^^Talm. Berachoth 54b; comp. Chagigah 16a. 

2^ Talm. Berachoth 28b. 

^ Talm. Pesachim 54a. 

*^ Talm. B. Mezia 58a. 

""Mishnah Edyoth II; comp. Talm. Rosh-hashanah 17a; 
also Gaster: "Hebrew Visions of Hell and Paradise" in 
Transactions of Royal Asiatic Soc, 1893, p. 571; Zunz: D. 
gottesd. Vortr., 2d ed., p. 149, note 3. 



CHAPTEE IX 

ChRISTIAXITY^ BUDDHIS^iI AXD ESSEXISM 

Bacon's saying, " that prosperity is the blessing of 
the Old Testament and adversity of the Xew,*' ^ though 
somewhat exaggerated, contains nevertheless much 
that is true. It is the general conception of the Old 
Testament that faithfulness to the Law of God will 
be rewarded by outward success, though to prove the 
character of that faithfulness trials and temptations 
are sent from on High. The Xew Testament regards 
calamity and suffering as necessary means for spiritual 
uplifting, and the life of the individual as weU as that 
of mankind as opportunity for such development. It 
discerns divine love in the greatest sorrows that befall 
man, and regards the activities of the powers of evil on 
earth from the same point of view. 

Though Jesus and Paul were not the founders of a 
new religion,^^ for as Schleiermacher correctly states, 
"no religion is wholly new, as the same basic ideas 
reappear in all," "" yet they impressed their powerful 
personalities upon the current ideas and moulded them 
the better to meet the exigencies of their time. Well- 
hausen^s statement, " that a new spirit pervades the 
Gospels," ^ is not wholly true ; Jesus and Paul merely 
reshaped old material that had existed. Thus, indi- 

'-Cf. Bacon's Essays, London, 1877, p. 17. 
'a Cf. Harnack: Dogmatengesch., 2d ed., vol. I, pp. 39, 61. 
= Cf. Stade: Akad. Reden, etc., Giessen, 1899, p. .57. 
^Cf. Wellhausen: Israelii, u. JUdische Gesch., Berl., 1894, 
p. 313. 



182 Cheistiaxitt,. Buddhis:*! axd Essexism 

vidiialism which makes itself felt in the Khokma-litera- 
tiire and in the later Psalms, and becomes more and 
more pronounced in the Apocryphal and Apocalyptic 
literature, reaches its highest development in the Xew 
Testament/ The Gospels no longer appeal to state 
or nation, but wholly to the individual. The care of 
the Jew, during Old Testament times and long after 
it, was the nation; the care of the Christian was his 
own soul, his salvation. This explains that while the 
eschatology of the Old Testament is historico-nationaL 
in the Xew Testament it revolves solely around the 
individual, at the same time bearing the impress of 
the super-terrestrial. Here the individual is never lost 
sight of; be he sinner or publican, he is included in 
the care of Divine Providence. Inheritance in the 
Kingdom of God is assured to him who puts his faith 
in the Eedeemer. 

To speak, therefore, of Xew Testament Christianity 
as thoroughgoing Pessimism is misleading. True it is 
pessimistic as far as this life is concerned, but it is 
optimistic in regards to a future existence.^ It points 
the way to the subdual of life's desires and passions, and 
offers to the conqtteror the true eternal life beyond 
the grave.^ 

Are, then, the pessimistic tendencies that abound in 
the Xew Testament wholly original with Jesus and 
Paul, or have they been developed from Old Testament 
conceptions, or have they been taken from foreign 

*Cf. Wellhaiisen: Israelii, ii. Jiid. Gesch., Berl., 1901, p. 
394. 

^Cf. Schopenhauer: Frauenstadt ed., vol. Ill, p. 713; also 
Haupt: Oriental Studies, Boston, 1894, p. 265, note 15. 

^Cf. Goether: D. moderne Pess., Lpzg., 1878, p. 214. 



Christianity^ Buddhism and Essenism 183 

sources? Buddhistic influence is claimed by Schopen- 
hauer' and many others.'^ There is, indeed, striking- 
similarity between Christianity and Buddhism. Both 
protest against the moral and social conditions of their 
day, then both regard this life as a kind of burden, 
from which deliverance must be sought.^ In Bud- 
dhism moral reformation is wrought, not so much 
through positive moral and physical discipline, as is 
the case in Christianity, but through Nirvana, in which 
state the soul is saved the torments of transmigration 
and is brought into unconscious unity with the All. 
And yet Christianity does not appear wholly unhos- 
pitable to this basic pessimistic element in Buddhism. 
Here, too, life is under a heavy and oppressive cloud; 
it is life beyond that spells freedom. The difference 
between these two systems of religion is, that while 
Buddhism predicates a curse to all life, Christianity 
conceives life as once having been free from curse, and 
that in time it shall be free from its incubus once 
more. 

Furthermore, the extreme ascetic attitude of Bud- 
dhism toward the joys of life is softened down in New 
Testament Christianity. Nowhere does Jesus state 
that sin is innate in the human body, or that evil is 

^ Cf . Schopenliauer: Griesbach ed., vol. Ill, p. 145, vol. II, 
pp. 573. 734. 

'aCf. Kuenen: Hibbert Lectures, 1882, pp. 359 ff; also Old- 
enberg: Theol. Lit., Zeitung, 1882, col. 415 f; Seydel: Evang. 
u. Buddhismus, 1882; Happel: D. rel. u. phil. Grundan- 
schauungen d. Inder., Giessen, 1902; Dilger: D. Erlosung d. 
Menschen, etc., Basel, 1902. 

^ James: The Varieties of Religious Experience, London, 
1902, p. 165. 



184 Christianity^ Buddhism and Essenism 

a necessary ingredient of matter/* Jesus lays stress on 
the fundamental fact that the root of evil is in the heart, 
whence proceed evil thoughts and deeds that defile man 
and determine the character of his soul. Paul, who 
drew largely upon Paganism ^ for his theology, looks 
upon the body as the prison of the soul.'" Holtzmanu 
pertinently remarks : " *^ Paul would have remained 
within the Jewish representation if, according to his 
apprehension, just as the inward man, reason, heart, 
conscience, would gravitate to the good, so the outward 
man, or rather the flesh of which it consists, would also 
gravitate to the bad.'' But for the Apostle the flesh, 
while not in its innate nature sinful, is rich in impulses, 
desires and lusts which are in direct opposition to all 
that is good, which " war against the law of the mind,'' 
and bring man into captivity to the law of sin that is 
in his members." '^ In another and most important 
respect does Christianity differ from Buddhism. Chris- 
tianity does not wholly satisfy itself with the negative 
side of Pessimism." While it accentuates the vanity 
of riches and makes abnegation of self the central 

*aCf. Matt. 15:19, 20; also Toy: Jud. and Christianity, p. 
207. 

«Cf. Cone: Paul, N. Y., 1898, pp. 49, 224, 245, 340, 416; 
also Jastrow: The Study of Religions, London, 1901, p. 236; 
Pfleiderer: Philos. and Development of Rel., vol. II, pp. 
162 ff, 290; Toy: Jud. and Christianity, p. 413. 

"I Cor. 15:50; Rom. 6:6; 8:3; 7:24; 8:10; also Hirsch: 
Religionsphil., Lpzg., 1842, pp. 762 ff; Dickson: Paul's Use 
of the Forms Flesh and Spirit, p. 112; Cone: Paul, pp. 223 ff. 

"Neutest. Theol., II, p. 38. 

^2 Rom. VII: 23. 

^^Cf. Goether: Der moderne Pessimismiis, Lpzg., 1878, p. 
214. 



Christianity, Buddhism and Essenism 185 

point of its morality, it makes the end of this life the 
beginning of a better and eternal existence. Buddhism 
is a system of denial, denying future existence and a 
Supreme Being.'* History is vocal with the admonition 
that Atheism and Pessimism go hand in hand, and 
that Pessimism begets brutalism, inciting the low- 
est passions that lurk in the human heart. Chris- 
tianity is the announcement of a hope which lifts 
man out of his impotence into a new joyousness of life. 
The pessimist gives up the fight for lost ere it begins. 
The Christian goes forth into life's battle beckoned 
onward by the star of victory : " This is the victory 
that overcomes the world even our faith '^ (I John 5:4). 

From this point of view Pessimism and Christianity 
are the two great contrasts."^ The resemblances, 
though striking, may be accidental. All religions have 
much in common in certain stages of their develop- 
ment. 

On the other hand, that Christianity has absorbed 
much of the Essenic thought is based upon actual 
facts. Here the similarity is not superficial nor acci- 
dental, but real. The fact that both systems flourished 
among the same people united by the ties of blood 
and of common traditions proves almost conclusively 
that they have influenced one another. Prof. Graetz 
states : " Jesus must have been powerfully attracted 
by the Essenes who led a contemplative life apart from 
the world and its vanities. Like the Essenes Jesus 

"Cf. Schopenhauer: Vol. Ill, p. 143; of. also I. W. 
Howerth: What is Religion? Int. J. of Ethics, Jan., 1903, 
p. 189. 

^*a Cf . Unold: Aufgaben u. Ziele d. Menschenlebens, Lpzg., 
1899; Luthard: Die mod. Weltanschauung, Lpzg., 1880, pp. 
189 ff. 



186 Cheistiaxity. Buddhism axd Essenism 

highly esteemed self-inflicted poverty and despised 
raanimon and riches/^" Community of goods^ charac- 
teristic of Essenic Society, was practiced in Xew Tes- 
tament times : " And all that l^elieved were together 
and had all things common, and they sold their pos- 
sessions and goods and parted them to all, according 
as any man had need *^ (Acts 2:4:4:, 45; ibid., 4:32). 
It was the boast of TertuUian (c. 200) "that all things 
are common among ns except our wives." ^'^ 

Xew Testament Christianity shared, too, the aver- 
sion of the Essenes to marriage (^latt. 19 : 11, 12). 
The Essenes condemned the marital state and attached 
virtue to celibacy. 

Prof. Toy also discerns close aflBnity between the 
teachings of Jesus and those of Essenism.'^ He says : 
"Jesus may have been attracted by that self-abnega- 
tion which the party so strikingly illustrated. The Es- 
senian practices of non-resistance and abandonment of 
claims to private property were doubtless well known 
in Palestine in the first half of the first century and 
may have been spnpathized with by many persons."" 

^^Cf. Gesch. d. Jiid., vol. Ill, pp. 281 ff (Engl, ed., vol. II, 
pp. 150 ff). 

^^aApol. 39; cf. Lecky: Democracy and Liberty, N. Y., 
1897, vol. II, chpt. VIII. 

^«Matt. 4:24; 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-45: 3:20-22; Luke 5:12-2fi. 

^'Cf. Jud. and Christianity, p. 256; Conybeare's article, 
" Essenes," in Hastings' Diet, of the Bible, vol. I ; Uhlhorn 
in the 3d ed. of Herzog's Real Encycl., vol. V, Lpzg., 1898; 
Schiirer: Gesch. d. Jiid. V., 3d ed., vol. II, chpt. 30; Kohler: 
" The Essene Brotherhood," in Reform Advocate, Chicago, 
vol. VII, No. 1; Friedlander: Zur Entstehung d. Christon- 
thums, Wien, 1894, p. 123. 



Christianity^ Buddhism and Essenism 187 

Volkmar ''' and Gunkel/' too, believe Christianity to be 
an outgrowth of Essenism. Knenen and Harnack 
strongly combat Essenic influence in Christianity. 
Kuenen states "* " that the agreement is in details of 
secondary importance, the difference is one of prin- 
ciple. Essenic separation, the formation of a small 
and strictly closed society to realize the ideal of cere- 
monial purity, has nothing Christian in it; and con- 
versely the Christian propaganda for the rescuing of 
sinners is in no way Essenic.^^ Harnack states '^ the 
fundamental difference between Christianity, or rather 
Jesus, and the Essenes in the following words: "The 
Essenes made a point of the most extreme purity in 
the eye of the law, and held severely aloof not only 
from the impure but even from those who were a little 
lax in their purity. . . . Jesus exhibits a complete con- 
trast with this mode of life, he goes in search of sin- 
ners and eats with them. So fundamental a difference 
alone makes it certain that he had nothing to do with 
the Essenes.'' '' 

Essenism, which Kuenen describes as " ascetic com- 
munism,'' '^ arose toward the middle of the second pre- 

^'^ D. vierte B. Ezra, Ziiricli, 1858, p. 11; Gimkel's transl. in 
Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. II, p. 336. 

^^Cf. Graetz: Gescli. d. Juden., vol. Ill, pp. 274 ff (Engl, 
ed., vol. II, pp. 142 ff). 

==» Hibbert Lectures, 1882, pp. 215 ff. 

-^Wbat is Christianity? p. 35. 

^^ For difference bet. Christianity and Essenism see Well- 
hausen's Israelit. u. Jlidische Gesch., Berl., 1894, p. 311; cf. 
also p. 312, notes 2 and 3. 

-^Hibbert Lectures, 1882, pp. 218 f; also Lucius: D. Essen- 
ismus in seinem Verhaltniss zum Judentum, Strassburg, 
1881, pp. 75 ff. 



188 Cheistiaxitt, Buddhism axd Essexism 

Christian century in Palestine, after the attempt of 
Antiochus Epiphanes to Hellenize the Jews. Plinv 
tells ns ^^' that a colony of Essenes lived near the town 
of Engaddi^ on the western shore of the Dead Sea, 
isolated from the worlds, without wives and without 
money^ having the palm trees (of the Jericho plain) 
as companions, their number being recruited from the 
multitudes of strangers that resort thither from the 
misery and shipwreck of life — a people most wonderful, 
inasmuch as its history goes back to thousands of 
ages.'' What we know of the Essenes is mostly derived 
from Philo's " De Vita Contemplativa," which, on the 
whole, agrees with the account of them furnished by 
Josephus."^ Graetz '^ and Lucius '' assert that Philo 
could not have been the author of the treatise ascribed 
to him. The latter's theory is that it was written dur- 
ing the third Christian century as a defense against 
those who looked with disfavor upon the ascetic prac- 
tices of many of the early Christians. The Philonic 
authorship finds a champion in Friedlander, who dis- 
cerns the hand of Philo in the production."^ A moot 
question is the origin of Essenism. Some assert that 
the Essenes were an offshoot from the Assidgean party,"^ 

"Nat. Hist. 5:16, 17. 

^^De Bell. Jud., Bk. II, chpt. XVIII 1, 5; VIII 4. 

-^Gesch. d. Juden, vol. Ill, p. 698; ibid., note 10. 

-'D. Therapeiiten, Strassburg, 1880; also Schiirer: Theol. 
Literaturzeitung, 1880, pp. 111-218. 

'^ Zur Entstehung d. Christenthums, pp. 59 ff, 96. 

-' Cf. " D. Essaer " in Frankel's Zcschft., vol. Ill, pp. 
441 ff; ibid., vol. II, pp. 30 ff; Graetz: Hist of the Jews, vol. 
II, pp. 16 ff ; comp. Geiger's Jiid. Ztschft., vol. XI, p. 197, 
note 26; ibid., vol. IX, pp. 32 ff. 



Christiaxity, Buddhism axd Essexism 189 

others that they were a peculiar outgrowth of Judaism 
influenced by Buddhism, Parseeism. but especially by 
Pythagoreanism.'° 

^^Cf. Toy: Jud. and Christianicy, p. 219, note 2; also 
Herzfeld: Gesch. d. V. Jisrael, pp. 382 ff; Scliurer: A Hist, 
of the Jewish People, 2d ed., vol. II. pp. 205 ff. 



CHAPTEE X 

The KiNGDO]\r of God and the Messiah 

The fundamental hope of Christianity, at its birth, 
was, undoubtedly, the establishment of the Kingdom 
of Grod.'' The kingdom was to rise upon the ruins of 
a world, degraded and degenerated, and become the 
home of Saints who, henceforth, will live in everlasting 
felicity. The Kingdom of God, or of Heaven,'^ a 
phrase very common in the New Testament, is found 
in a circumscribed form in the Old Testament, where 
it is used to describe not a locality, but, rather a con- 
dition, a state of affairs on earth when the Divine Will 
will be the supreme law. Thus, we read in Zech. 
(14:9, 280 B. C.) "j^D^ '•^ n\-Ti im^ )^m im^ *» n\Ti 
Kinn Dvn psn-'pD-^r " And JHVH shall be King over 
all the earth ; on that day shall JHVH be one and His 
name one." " In the Maccabean-Psalm (145 : 13) we 
read : 

" Thy kingdom is a kingdom throughout the ages, 
Thy dominion endures for ever and ever." 

'Cf. Wellhausen: Israelit. u. Jiid. Gesch., Berl., 1901, p. 
386. 

^a Some derive the term " Kingdom of Heaven " from Dan. 
7:17. I believe rather that it was taken from Obadiah (400- 
450 B. C), verse 21: n^lSnn ^^h nn^Tl "And the King- 
dom shall be JHVH'S; " cf. also Jost: Gesch. d. Jud., vol. I, 
p. 387; Herzfeld: Gesch. d. V. Jisrael, vol. II, pp. 311 ff. 

^Cf. Ps. 22:28 (c. 500 B. C.). 



192 The Kingdom of God ais^d the Messiah 

The ISTew Testament teachmg concerning the King- 
dom of Heaven connects itself with the large ideas of 
the Old Testament, that took their rise in the nniver- 
salistic conceptions of the ancient Hehrew Prophets." 

The eschatology of the S}TLoptics deals with the 
consummation of the Kingdom of Heaven. As the 
Kingdom will owe its origin to G-od's chosen messenger, 
the Messiah, so it will owe to Him the final consum- 
mation. 

The prophecy of Jesns^ second coming appears in 
connection with his statement concerning his approach^ 
ing death. Having foretold his death (Mark 8:31) 
he speaks of his retnrn (ibid., 8 : 38) " And he began to 
teach them that the son of man* must snffer many 
things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief - 
priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three 
days rise again." '^ For whosoever shall be ashamed 
of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful 
generation, the son of man also shall be ashamed of 
him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with 

^ Cf. Sandy's art., " Jesus Christ," in Hastings' Diet, of the 
Bible, vol. II; Harnack: What is Christianity? p. 56. 

* " The very expression, ' Son of man ' (that Jesus used it 
is beyond question) seems to me to be intelligible only in a 
Messianic sense" (Harnack: "What is Christianity? p. 140); 
Wellhausen, on the other hand, claims that Jesus never used 
that term, but that it was put in his mouth by the later edi- 
tors of the Gospel. Cf. Skizzen u. Vorarbeiten, Berl., 1899, 
pp. 187 ff. Driver (art. Son of Man, Hastings' Diet, of the 
B., vol. IV, p. 587b) agrees with Harnack: "He adopted it 
as a mere shell or form, suggestive of his humanity, into 
which he threw a new import and content of his own." Cf. 
Wellhausen: Israelit. u. Jiidische Gesch., Berl., 1901, p. 387, 
note. 



The Kingdom of God and the Messiah 193 

the holy angels." Eepeatedly Jesus declares to his 
followers that they would not taste death before having 
witnessed the Parousia. 

The early Christians firmly believed in a life beyond, 
and that a foretaste of its beatitude was at hand in 
the millennium which would begin, in their judgment, 
before their generation had passed away. At any 
moment they were prepared to behold in the sky the 
sign which was to foretell the Parousia.^ It was the 
common belief ere the rise of Christianity that an 
awful world -catastrophe would precede the establish- 
ment of the kingdom.^^ 

'Matt. 10:23; 24:3-14, 29-31; Mark 14:62; Luke 12:40, 
21:31. 

''a •' In the last days perilous times shall come" (II Tim. 
3:1). " But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, when 
the heavens shall pass away with great noise, and the heav- 
enly bodies shall be dissolved with great heat and the earth 
and the works that are therein shall be burned up " (II 
Peter 3:10); cf. also Deane (Pseudepigrapha, Edinburgh, 
1891, p. 13), who states: "Throughout all the apocalyptic 
books the advent of the second age is to be ushered in by 
extraordinary calamities consequent on excessive moral evil, 
and characterized by an universal degeneracy alike in ani- 
mal and vegetable life." Cf. also Edwards: " Buddha's Ser- 
mon on the End of the World," in Open Court, Chicago, 
July, 1901; also Daniel, who speaks (12:1) of a time of 
trouble and trial ( mV Jir). The references to the '•PHH 
n''\^Dr\ (the suffering Messiah) are many. Wise correctly 
pointed out (Martyrdom of Jesus, Cine, 1888, pp. 148 ff) and 
Kautzsch (Art. Messiah in Cheyne's Encycl. Bibl., vol. Ill, 
p. 3063) that n^S^'D ^"pnn refers to the sufferings of the 
people that would precede the coming of the Messianic time. 
In the Talm. Sanhedrin 98b we find that man may be saved 
from those sufferings if he be busy with the study of the 

13 



194 The Kixgdom or God axd the Messiah 

Associated with the doctrine of the Parousia is that 
of the Final Jndgment.^^ This judgment is presented 
as the object of the coming, and it occupies a place of 
like prominence in Christ's teaching/ Christ, the son 
of man, is to be the Judge/ When he comes, every- 
thing is to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling 
of an eye at the sound of the great trumpet/ The 
true believers are to be caught up in heaven, and placed 
upon thrones provided for them. The unbelievers are 
to be cast into a sea of fire and brimstone. God has 
sent His son upon earth to reveal the one true light 
and establish miraculously the Kingdom of Heaven. 
" Eepent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," ^ 
is the message Jesus sent forth the disciples to preach. 

Torah and the practice of charity. Cf. 4 Ezra 5:9; 6:24; 
15:5; 16:22,23; Barucli 27:2-6; 48:32. The Sibylline Oracles 
(Blass' transl. in Kautzsch's A u. P., vol. II); Mishnah 
Sotah IX: 15; Talm. Sanhedrin 89a, 95a, 97a; Hamburger: 
Real Encycl., " Mess. Leidenszeit," III, pp. 735 ff ; " Jewish 
Conception of a Suffering Messiah " in Yale Bicentennial 
Publ., N. Y., 1901, pp. 204 ff; Schlirer: A Hist, of the Jewish 
People, 2d ed., II, vol. II, pp. 184 ff. 

=b On " The Day of JHVH " see " Eschatology " in Hast- 
ings' Diet, of the B., vol. I, p. 376; Smith: Prophets, 2d ed., 
p. 131 f, 379 note 15; Briggs: Mess. Proph., pp. 487 ff; 
Schultz: Alttest Theol., pp. 728 fE; Duff: O. T. Theol., p. 87; 
Dillmann: Alttest Theol., p. 504; Bennett: O. T. Theol., p. 
81; Marti: Gesch. d. Isr. Rel., pp. 114 f; 140; 180-186; Vale- 
ton: Amos u. Hosea, p. 220, n. 94; Cheyne: Isaiah in P. B. 
(Engl, transl.), p. 132, n. 7; Grimm: Euphemistic Liturgical 
Appendixes, Balto., 1901, p. 84. 

^Matt. 22:1-14; 13:36-42; 47:50; 16:27; 25:31. 

'Matt. 25:31; John 5:22; Acts 17:30-32; II Tim. 4:1; 
James 5:7-10. 

^ Matt. 24 : 27-32. " Matt. 4 : 17. 



The Kixgdom of God and the Messiah 195 

" And as ye go, preach, saying, the Kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand." " 

The Messiah now assumes a position unknown in 
the past; for membership in the Kingdom is had 
through personal relationship to the Messiah. The 
Kingdom of God is the goal of Jesns' activity, the reali- 
zation of the Kingdom, according to the conception of 
Jesus, will take place in the future through God, but 
the beginning of it is in the present."^ In the presence 
of the Kingdom of God all other teachings of Jesus 
seem of minor importance.'" The qualifications neces- 
sary for admission into the Kingdom, as enumerated in 
the Sermon on the Mount, are purely ethical and 
spiritual. Harnack states that Jesus^ message of the 
Kingdom rims through all the forms and statements 
of the prophecy which, taking its color from the Old 
Testament, announces the day of Judgment and the 
visible government of God in the future, up to the 
idea of an inward coming of the Kingdom, starting 
with Jesus' message and then beginning. His message 
embraces these two poles, with many stages between 
them that shade off into one another. At the one pole 
the coming of the Kingdom seems to be a purely future 
event, and the Kingdom itself to be the external rule 
of God; at another, it appears as something inward, 
something which is already present and making its 
entrance at the moment. ^fsTeither the conception of 
the Kingdom of God nor the way in which its coming 

^"Matt 10:7. 

"Cf. Wellhansen: Israelit. u. Jiid. Gesch., Berl., 1901, p. 
386; also Lagarde: Mittheil., IV, Gott., 1891, p. 308. 
^^Matt. 4:17; 6:10; 13:40-50. 



196 The Kingdom of God axd the Messiah 

is represented is free from ambiguity/'^ WellhaTisen's 
view, that by the Kingdom Jesus could understand 
nothing else but what the people of his time under- 
stood b}' it, and that he might as well have said — the 
day of the Lord or the judgment is near at hand, and 
that Jesus did not come as the Messiah, or as one who 
is to fulfill a prophecy, but that he came as a prophet 
and that his message was but at first a prophec}^, is 
not attested to by the text." Thus, when John the 
Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus and said : " Art thou 
he that should come, or are we to look for another ? '' 
Jesus replied : " Go your way and tell John the things 
which you do hear and see. The blind receive their 
sight . . . and the dead are raised up, and the poor 
have good tidings preached to them. And blessed is 
he whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in 
me " (Matt. 11 : 3-6). In another passage we find Jesus 
commendino^ Peter for seeino- in him the Messiah.'^^ 
"And he (Jesus) asked them (his disciples) ^but who 
say ye that I am ? ^ Peter answered and said unto him, 
' thou art the Christ ' '' (Mark 8 : 29, 30) . 

"The Kingdom of God comes not with observation; 

^-a Cf. Harnack: What is Christianity? p. 56. 

^^'Cf. Wellhausen: Israelit. u. Jlid. Gesch., Berl., 1901, p. 
380; also Nestle Philologia Sacra, Berl,, 1896, p. 50. 

i^aCf. Weisz (D. Leben Jesu, Berl., 1888, vol. I, pp. 273 ff), 
who believes that Jesus from the beginning regarded him- 
self as the Messiah; Harnack (What is Christianity? p. 140) 
substantially agrees to this; comp. John 4:25, 26; 11:25, 26; 
also Stade: Akad. Reden, Giessen, 1899, p. 91;cf. Max Muel- 
ler, The Divine and the Human in Rel. Open Court, 
Chicago, May, 1891. 



The Kingdom of God axd the Messiah 197 

neither shall they say, lo, here! or, there, for lo, the 
Kingdom of God is within yon " (Lnke 17 : 20b, 21)." 

That the kingdom is present in some form follows 
likewise from Matt. 6:33. "But seek ye first his 
kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things 
shall be added unto you." " Enter ye in by the nar- 
row gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way 
that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that 
enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and strait- 
ened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they 
that find it (Matt. 7:13, 14). Again, the fact that 
the kingdom is already present is presupposed by many 
of the parables. Thus, in the parables of the mustard 
seed (Matt. 13: 31-31) and of the leaven, the Kingdom 
is represented as spreading intensely and extensively.'" 

The other conception of Jesus concerning the King- 
dom is projected into the future for its consummation. 
This view seems to be more in accord with the spirit 
of all his ethical teachings and moral sayings.'*^ " My 
Kingdom is not of this world; if my Kingdom were of 
this world, then would my servants fight, that I should 
not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my Kingdom 
not from hence " (John 18 : 36). The Kingdom repre- 
sents to Jesus the truer and more complete life. He 
is fond of bringing out that meaning by contrasting 
this life with the life to come. " For whosoever would 
save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his 
life for my sake and the gospeFs shall save it. For 

"Cf. Harnack: What is Christianity? p. 58. 

^^Cf. Charles: Doct. of a Future Life, London, 1899, pp. 
316 ff. 

^•'Cf. Kuenen: Bible for Learners, Boston, 1879; vol. Ill, 
pp. 150 ff. 



198 The Kingdom of God and the Messiah 

what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and 
forfeit his life'' (Mark 8:35, 36). Jesus uses "enter 
into life '' " and " enter into the Kingdom of God '''' 
as interchangeable phrases. Thus we read in Mark 
9 : ^3, "And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it 
off; it is good for thee to enter life maimed, rather 
than having thy two hands to go into Gehenna." " 

As the New Testament conception of the Kingdom 
of God finds its prototype in the catholic ideas of the 
Old Testament, so Messianism may be traced to the 
same source. That the Christian faith in a Messiah is 
rooted in Judaism, is the opinion of Bauer.^° The 
term n^t^'D " anointed '' is often used in Old Testament 
Scriptures as a synonym for king, the king was 
" JHVH'S anointed " nin'' n-iJ^^D Thus David, referring 
to the killing of Saul, asks the Amalekite : " How 
wast thou not afraid to put forth thine hand to de- 
stroy JHVH'S anointed.'''"^ "Now, I know that 
JHVH saves His anointed," sings the author of the 
twentieth Psalm.''"^ In time of foreign oppression he 
who was chosen to be JHVH'S instrument for deliver- 
ing the Israelitish nation was also called JHVH'S 
anoint ed.^°^ When Jehojakim had become the vassal 
of Babylon (605 B. C.) Jeremiah urges him to submit 

^■^ eiQ TTjv (,if)f}V elae/i-&elv. 

^'^ eiGsTi'&Eiv elc r^v ^aaOieiav tov Qeov. 

"Comp. ibid., 9:47. 

2" Dogmatengescli., vol. I, p. 141; also Geiger's Ztschf., vol. 
Ill, pp. 43 ff. 

^°aCf. I Sam. 24:6 (c. 900 B. C.) ; comp. I Sam. 2:10; 
12:3, 5; 16:6; Lam. 4:20. 

^b20:6 (c. 400 B. C); comp. Ps. 2:2; 28:8; 132:17; 18.51. 

^"cisa. 41:2-7 (549-539 B. C); ibid., 44:23-45; 46:11-13; 
also Talm. Berachoth 34b. 



The Kingdom of God and the Messiah 199 

to the King of Babylon^ who was JHYH'S chosen rod 
to chastise Egypt. " Thus saith JHVH . . . Behold, 
I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the King of 
Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne npon these 
stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal 
pavilion over them. And he shall come and smite the 
land of Egypt." '"'^ Jeremiah speaks of Nebuchadnez- 
zar as "JHVH'S servant" and Isajah calls Cyrus 
"JHVH'S anointed." "^ "Thus says JHVH to His 
anointed, to Cyrus." " But the New Testament con- 
ception of a Messiah as a Kedeemer from sin is foreign 
to the Old Testament. After the Hasmonean dynas- 
ty"' failed to realize the high flown expectations that 
are voiced by the author of Daniel (163 B. C.),'* the 
Messiah conception, heretofore political and national, 
assumes a supernatural character, slowly and gradually 
developing through the Apocalyptic literature into the 
Messiah of the New Testament. Thus in the Psalter 
of Solomon (63-45 B. C.) the messianic hopes are most 
intense."^ The Messiah is David's son and the King 
of Israel, his task it is to expell the heathens from 
Jerusalem and cleanse the city from its abominations, 
then he will found in Jerusalem a kingdom for the 
just and holy. Into this kingdom strangers are not 
admitted, only law-abiding Jews. Then he subjugates 

'"(143:10, 11a (586 B. C). -M5:l (545-539 B. C). 

^^ Cf. Halevy: " Cyrus " in Revue des Etudes Juives, Paris, 
July, 1880; also Cassel: Gesch. d. Jiid. Lit., Berl., 1872, pp. 
323 ff ; Cheyne's crit. notes to Engl, transl. of Isaiah in P. B., 
p. 175, note 1. ^^67: 37 B. C. 

"7:27; 9:26, 27; 11:40 ff; comp. Ps. 149; also Jost: Gesch. 
d. Judent., vol. II, pp. 172 ff. 

«17:21ff; 18:5-9, 



200 The Kixgdom or God axd the Messiah 

all the lieatliens, wlio then ToliintarilY accept his rule. 
All this he accomplished Trith the aid of God, and 
while free from sin and filled with the holy spirit, so 
that his words seem like the words of the angels."* In 
the Book of Henoch (TO- 60 B. C.) much is said about 
the judgeship of the Messiah. Henoch sees the son 
of man, i. e. the Messiah, sitting at the side of God."^ 
An angel explains the vision to mean that the son of 
man will judge the godless.^ In the succeeding chap- 
ters the nature of the Messiah is dwelled upon; he is 
pre-existent.^ Side by side with these views, the old 
conception of the Messiah as a deliverer and as a scion 
of the Davidic d}TLasty reappears when the hand of the 
conqueror is heaw\' upon the nation. Thus the republican 
zealots, the followers of Judas, the Galilean, expect the 
Messiah to do nothing else but to end the power of 
Eome and to re-establish the Golden Age of the House 
of David.^° This is supported by a statement found in 
Josephus,*'^ that the Jews derived their strongest in- 
spiration to rise against Eome from a prophecy which 
promised that one of their own would become the ruler 
of the whole world. 

^ Cf. Kittel's Einl. to his new transl. of the Ps. of Sol. in 
Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. II, p. 129. 

-'Chpts. 45-57; cf. Beer's Einl. to his new transl. of 
Henoch in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. II, p. 222; also J. Flem- 
ming: D. B. Henoch, Lpzg., 1902. 

=^ Chpt. 46. "■ Chpts. 48, 49. 

-°Cf. Graetz: Hist, of the Jews, vol. II, p. 144; also Stade: 
Akademische Reden, Giessen, 1899, p. 41; also Huidekoper: 
Judaism at Rome, N. Y., 1888, pp. 134 f. 

'"a Bell. Jud., Bk. YI, 5:4; cf. also Tacitus: Hist., 5:13; 
Sueton: Vesp., chpt. IV; Graetz: Volksthiimliche Gesch. d. 
Juden., vol. I, p. 570. 



The Kingdom of God and the Messiah 201 

The School of Shammai (10-80 C. E.), though favor- 
ing the political role of the Messiah, pictured the 
Messianic age as a time of strict observance of religious 
rites and of profoundest moral purity. The School of 
Hillel, contemporary of the School of Shammai, held 
aloof from all political intrigue regarding the Messiah 
as the Prince of Peace/^ But all are agreed that the 
Messiah must be a scion of David; this explaines why 
" the son of David ^' became the synonym for Messiah.*^ 

The most idealistic turn to the Messianic conception 
was given by the Essenes. Their life having for its 
goal the advancement of the Messianic age, they were 
of the opinion that the practice of ascetic rites would 
hasten its coming. They conceived the Messiah as a 
great Moral Eeformer who would search out the evil 
and bring about its removal, then he would establish a 
society among men that would be permeated with the 
ideals of altruism. The asceticism they practised was 
to be a kind of antidote against the degeneracy that 
was common in their day.^'' " Of all the Utopias,^' 
says Carus, " born of those aspirations towards a new 
state of mankind, intended to realize what before was 
only image and prophecy, the most original was incon- 
testably the attempt of the religious and monastic sect 

3^ Cf, Graetz: Hist of the Jews, vol. II, p. 144. 

^^Cf. Herzfeld: Gesch. d. Volkes Jisrael: Nordhausen, 
1857, vol. I, 183; vol. II, 311-333; 353-355; 506-509; Geiger: 
Das Judent. u. seine Gesch., Breslau, 1864, pp. 117 ff; Stein: 
Die Schrift d. Lebens Mannheim, 1872, pt. I, chpt. XVI; 
Graetz: Hist, of the Jews, vol. II, pp. 95, 143-145; Gesch. d. 
Juden., Lpzg., 1888, 4th ed., vol. Ill, pp. 59, 273 ff. 

3^Cf. Graetz: Hist of the Jews, vol. II, pp. 144 f; also 
Geiger: Jiidische Ztsch., vol. Ill (1864-65), pp. 35 ff. 



202 The Kingdom of God and the Messiah 

of the Essenes." ^* The ancient world had become so 
corrupt in manners and morals that the Essenes looked 
for speedy intervention on the part of Providence. It 
was John the Baptist^ a member of the Essenic com- 
munity, who at the banks of the Jordan preached the 
coming of the Kingdom of G-od. " In those days 
came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of 
Judaea/^ saying, " Eepent ye, for the Kingdom of 
Heaven is at hand ^' (Matt. 3 : 1, 2.) It seemed to have 
been the intention of the Baptist to form a community 
of followers, and thus in a practical way further the 
goal of his fraternity — the establishment of the King- 
dom. As the first step he required repentance, and 
baptism is to be its outward symbol. Herod Antipas, 
the Prince of Galilee, looked upon the Baptist's efforts 
with aversion and alarm, discerning in them the germ 
of rebellion. This led him to order the arrest of John 
the Baptist, whom he secretly had conveyed to Machae- 
rus, where later he was beheaded. 

Jesus, who must have heard of the preaching of 
John,^' came directly from Galilee to the Jordan unto 
John to be baptized of him.^^ After John's death 
Jesus, whose enthusiasm had brought him to John to 
be baptized and who was now deeply moved by his 
death, took up the work in the manner of John, 
proclaiming "Eepent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand" (Matt. 4:17b). 

The Messiah of Jesus differs from the Messiah as 
conceived in Old Testament literature and in the Jew- 
ish Apocalyptic literature. For, according to Jesus, 

^* Cf . Carus : Buddhism and its Christian Critics, Chicago, 
1899, p. 207. ^^'Comp. Matt. 3:7. ^« Cf . Matt, 3:13. 



The Kingdom of God axd the Messiah 203 

the Messiah will meet a violent death by the hands of 
others : ^' " The son of man shall be delivered up 
into the hands of men; and they shall kill him " (Matt. 
17:22,23a). Then, the Messiah will not be accord- 
ing to Jesus the harbinger of peace, of which the world 
was so much in need, but he will bring the sword: 
" Think not that I came to send peace, but a sword. 
For I came to set a man at variance against his father, 
and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter- 
in-law against here mother-in-law '' (Matt. 10 : 34, 35). 
Contrast with the Messianic conception of Jesus the 
conception held by E. Jochanan ben Saccai, who lived 
during the latter half of the first Christian century: 
" The prophet Elijah (i. e. the Messiah) shall not come 
to declare anything clean or unclean, nor to disqualify 
persons who are believed to be qualified for joining 
the congregation of the Lord, but he will come to 
establish peace on earth, as expressed in Malachi (4: 6). 
'^ He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 
and the heart of the children to their fathers.'^ ^ 
Then the parable (Matt. 4:1-11) which presents Jesua 
as being tempted of the devil in the wilderness and 
gives him power over Satan, represents a side of the 
Messiah's activity that is foreign to Jewish sources: 
" Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilder- 
ness to be tempted of the devil '^ . . . '^ Then saith 
Jesus unto him, ^ Get thee hence, Satan; for it is 
written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and 
Him only shalt thou serve.' Then the devil leaveth 
him." 

3'Cf. Gilbert: The Revelations of Jesus, N. Y., 1899, p. 58. 
^Mishna Eduyoth 8:7. 



CHAPTER XI 

Paulixe Christianity 

Paul's influence upon the course of the Primitive 
Christian Church was great and far-reaching. The 
many-sided activity of the Apostle to the Heathen left 
an imperishable impress upon the development of the 
new religion.' Like Jesus, Paul gives prominence to 
the eschatological element of religion; indeed, he lays 
more stress upon it than Jesus. This fact may be 
explained from the circumstance that while the mar- 
tyrdom of Jesus raised the religious enthusiasts to the 
very highest pitch of faith, some began to doubt the 
Parousia. Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonians 
(4: 16, 17) dwells explicitly upon this point: " For the 
Lord (Jesns) himself shall descend from heaven, when 
the call comes, and the voice of the archangel and the 
trumpet resounds; and first will rise the dead in 
Christ, then we that are still alive, and left, shall to- 

^Cf. Orello Cone: Paul, N. Y., 1898; H. J. Holtzmann: 
Einl. i. d. N. T., Freiburg, 1892, pp. 207 ff; Pfleiderer: Der 
Paulinismus, Berl., 1890, 2d ed.; Sabatier L'apotre: Paul, 
1882; P. Chr. Baur: " Paulus " in Tlibinger Ztschft. f. Tbeol., 
1845; Hausrath: D. Apostel P., 1872; Krenkel: "Paul, der 
Apostel d. Heiden," 1869; Jlilicher: Einl. i. d. N. T., Lpzg., 
1894, pp. 19 ff; Bleek: Introd. to N. T., Edinb., 1893, vol. I, 
pp. 381 ff; vol. II, pp. Iff; Winer Real W. B. art. Paulus; 
Findlay's art. " Paul the Apostle " in Hastings' Diet, of the 
B., vol. Ill; Addi's art. "Flesh" in Cheyne's Encycl. Bibl., 
vol. II; Hirsch: Religionsphil., Lpzg., 1842, pp. 723-786; 
Graetz: Hist, of the Jews, vol. II, pp. 223, 365, 373; Ed. v. 
Hartmann: Das rel. Bewusstsein, 1882, pp. 209 ff. 



206 Pauline Christianity 

gether with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet 
the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the 
Lord/^ The Thessalonians, to whom these words are 
addressed, M^ere recent converts of Paul and felt strongly 
on the subject of "the second coming," especially as 
to the fate of those who had died before the establish- 
ment of Christ^s rule on earth. The coming of Jesus 
is one of Paul's favorite topics, and the preparation of 
men for entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven is 
always near to the heart of the Apostle. The Jewish 
idea of the Kingdom, the perfect divine rule on earth 
to be established by the Messiah, which was adopted 
and spiritualized by Jesus, lies at the basis of the 
Pauline system.^ Thus the doctrine of Eesurrection, 
i. e. participation in the Kingdom of Heaven, has its 
point of culmination in the Pauline Eschatology. 
Paul's absorption of interest in the doctrine of " final 
things " seems to have made him indifferent to the 
things of this life. But Paul thus overlooks the great 
and pregnant truth, that man lives not for religion 
alone, but that religion is to form the motive power 
leading man to work out his existence on the noblest 
and highest plane. In laying much stress upon the fu- 
ture salvation of the individual, he loses sight of the 
happiness of human society here on earth. 

Paul connects the end of the world with the coming 
of Christ.^ To Paul the person of Christ was central 
and vital in the apprehension of Christianity. All that 
his new faith signified to him of relief from the op- 
pression of the Mosaic law and from the burden of sin, 

^ Cf. Pindlay's art. " Doctrine of the Kingdom of God " in 
Hastings' Diet, of the B., vol. Ill, p. 728. 
^Cf. II Cor. 5:10, 11. 



Pauline Chkistianity 207 

and all that it held of hope for his own regeneration 
and that of mankind was contained in his concept of 
the exalted Lord of glory/ 

PanFs theology may be summarized in the following 
passages : " Therefore as through one man sin entered 
the world, and death through sin ; and so death has been 
extended to all men, because all had sinned, for sin 
was in the world already before the Law, but sin is not 
imputed when there is no Law. Nevertheless death 
reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that 
had not sinned in the manner of the transgression of 
Adam, who is the image of him that was to come. But 
no, it is by the gift of grace not as by the trespass, if 
by the trespass of the one many died, the grace of 
God and the gift by grace of the one man Jesus Christ, 
abound to many ^^ (Romans 5:12-15). 

Now if it is preached concerning Christ, that he has 
been raised from the dead, how say some among you 
that there is no resurrection of the dead'^ (I Cor. 
15:12). 

That death *^ came into the world as the result of 
Adam's sin, is the pivot on which Paul's whole scheme 
of salvation turns. The whole inner life of Paul 
hinged upon the contrast between Law and faith, sin 
and grace, flesh and spirit, Adam and Christ.^ " For 

*Cf. Holtzmann: Einl., p. 87. 

*a The Roman philosophers taught that death was a law 
of nature, not a punishment. The Fathers regarded it as 
a penal infliction introduced on account of the sin of Adam, 
Cf. Lecky: Hist of European Morals, N. Y., 1890, vol. I, p. 
208. 

°Cf. Cone: Paul, p. 179; Immer. Theol. d. N. T., Bonn, 
1877, pp. 205 ff. 



208 Paulixe Cheistiaxity 

as in Adam all die. so also in the Christ shall all be 
made alive '" (I Cor. 15 : 22). ** Xo^. this I say, breth- 
ren, that iiesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom 
of God, neither does corrnption inherit incorrnption *' 
(I Cor. 15:50). 

According to Paul, by Adam's disobedience the 
power of sin was evoked, and the floodgates of iniquity 
nnbarred. Caird, a modem Christian Theologian, 
states : " The first transgression poisoned human 
nature at the root."' "^ ^lan lapsed in consequence of 
Adam's sin into a state of dense ignorance, and of 
moral degeneration. The death that follows Adam's 
disobedience, henceforth, is to be the heritage of 
Adam's posterity. 

The Biblical narrative of the Fall as interpreted by 
Paul in the Epistle to the Eomans^ seems to teach 
that the entail of moral is as universal as that of 
physical evil." That death was, primarily, due to man's 
own sinfulness, seems to have been Paul's view, if we 
study what he has to say about mans physical nature. 
Man has no power to refrain from sin, for his fleshlv 
nature, and his evil inclination' are more powerful 

^a Fundamental Ideas of Christianity, Glasgow, 1S99, vol. 
I, p. 205; also Augustine: De ci^-it. Dei. 

«Cf. Rom. 5:12ff. 

' Cf. Caird: Fund. Ideas of Christianity, vol. I, p. 212. 

^ In Rabbinical literature Ti^ is hardly other than a 
name for man's evil inclinations or tendencies. " God is 
always regarded as the creator of the evil nv^ This appears 
to be the most radical departure from the basal texts (Gen. 
6:5; 8:21 J), in which "IV* seems to be a man's own shaping 
of his thoughts or character. Yet the second text (8:21) 
suggests a certain innateness of the 1V^ and the belief that 
God made it agrees with the 0. T. and Jewish view, which 



Pauline Chkistianity 209 

than man^s natural reason. Flesh and spirit hold in 
Pauline thought a more specific religious sense based 
upon, but distinguished from, their psychological mean- 
ing; the former term regularly denotes the sinful 
nature of man, the latter its opponent in the influence 
of God operating in and through His spirit.^^ Since 
the seat of sin is, therefore, in the flesh, the punish- 
ment of sin is mainly, not wholly, physical death. The 
final redemption of man, of which the spirit is only the 
pledge, is therefore the restoration of the body.* More- 
over, since sin has its seat in the flesh, the resurrection 
is not only a re-creation of the body, but a change 
from a body of sin and death to one fitted for the 
higher spiritual part of man and incorruptible." The 

was opposed to a radical dualism." (Cf. Porter's exhaustive 
essay, " The Yecer Hara in Bibl. and Semitic Studies," Yale 
Bicentennial Publications, N. Y., 1901, p. 117.) "The evil 
yeger is to be at last removed and destroyed by God. The 
passage upon which this hope is chiefly rested was Ez. 36:26 
(cf. 11:19). This verse is in itself a striking proof that no 
idea of corrupt inclinations attaches to the term ' flesh ' in 
O. T. usage." Cf. ibid., p. 130; also Berachoth 5b: 

31D i:i^ Dis T^n^ Db)vh r-in -iv^ hv 

" There is a constant struggle in man between the good and 
evil inclinations." Not that these sensuous desires are abso- 
lutely evil, for they, too, have been implanted in man for 
good purposes. Without them man could not exist; he 
would not cultivate and populate the earth. Thus njm 
TISO 2)D " Behold it was very good," is explained in 
Midrash Rabba Bereshith 9:33 VI 1V^ nr " this is the evil 
desire." Cf. Talm. Berachoth 61a; Aboth 3:12. 

«aCf. Rom. 8:1-17; Gal. 5:16-25. 

«Cf. Rom. 8:10f, 23. 

'° Cf . I Cor. 15 : 42-49 ; also Addi's art. " Flesh " in Cheyne's 
Encycl. Bibl., vol. II, p. 1535; Joel: Blicke i. d. Religions- 
gesch., Breslau, 1880, I, pp. 37 ff. 
14 



210 Pauline Christianity 

death of Christ was to counteract the effect of man^s 
general sinfulness, due largely to Adam's sin, and re- 
store the normal relation between man and his Maker. 
This thought is clearly brought out when Paul says: 
"As through one transgression condemnation comes to 
all men, thus through one deed of righteousness justifi- 
cation of life comes to all men." " This " deed of 
righteousness " of which Paul speaks in the succeeding 
passage as " obedience '' — " for as through the one 
man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even 
so through the obedience of the one shall the many 
be made righteous " — that is compliance with the will 
of God, was an atonement for all men, objectively con- 
sidered, and subjectively, for as many as through faith 
lay hold on the salvation thus offered. They then 
become subjects of the divine decree of " justification " 
which assures them life, not merely the moral religious 
quality of life in the present existence, but superiority 
to death, the resurrection and participation in the 
blessedness of the kingdom at the Parousia. The 
necessity of an atonement was conceived to be based 
upon the relation of hostility between man and G-od, 
the removal of which could alone save the rest of man- 
kind from destruction. The next step in Paul's argu- 
ment was that if Christ was the Messiah, tlien his 
mission must have a profound historical significance. 
He, therefore, inveighs against the Law, asserting that 
it was detrimental to the pursuit of a higher life, and 
makes Jesus establish a new order of Law, a new 
righteousness, to supersede the old. Paul not only 
disapproved of the so-called ceremonial laws of Juda- 

^^Cf. Rom. 5:18; comp. I John 2:2. 



Pauline Chkistianitt . 211 

ism, but also of those relating to morality/^ He af- 
firms that without laws men would not have given way 
to their evil desires. " Through the law cometh the 
knowledge of sin/^ '^ " For when we were in the flesh, 
the sinful passions, which were through the law 
wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto 
death/' " " What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? 
God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin except 
through the law; for I had not known coveting except 
the law had said, thou shalt not covet.'' '^ In Romans 
(8 : 1-4) the last Adam is placed by Paul historically 
over against the first, as the founder of a new dispen- 
sation. Paul, with keen foresight, observed that so 
long as the Law of Moses and of the Prophets and of 
the Rabbi's was observed, so long Christianity would be 
but another name for Judaism. Some of the Jewish 
laws proved a hindrance, too, to the reception of 
heathen proselytes. This goes far to explain Paul's 
antagonism to the Law.'^ The Jew expected salvation 
through the Law, the Christian was to reach salvation 
through Jesus who died for the sin of Adam. 

^-Cf. Graetz: Hist of the Jews, vol. II, pp. 228 ff. 

^^Cf. Rom. 3:20b. ^*Cf. Rom. 7:5. "Cf. Rom. 7:7. 

^«Cf. Rom. 3:20; 4:13-15; 5:13-20; 6:14; 7:7-12; Gal. 2. 
15-16, 19-21; 3:10-14, 23; 4:3-7; 5:5; also Bauer: Dogmaten- 
gesch., vol. I, pp. 141 ff; Harnack: Lehrbch. d. Dogmaten- 
gesch., 3d ed., vol. I, pp. 88 ff ; Friedlander: " Pauline Eman- 
cipation from the Law " in J. Q. R., vol. XIV, pp. 265 fl; 
Gardner: A Historic View of the N. T., Jowett Lectures, 
1901 (sub. the Christianity of Paul). 



CHAPTER XII 

View of the Woeld and of Life in the New 
Testament 

The doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which 
forms the center of Xcw Testament Eschatology, is an 
element that makes for Pessimism/ For the New 
Testament exalts an ascetic attitude toward this world, 
its joys and pleasures, as being the best means for 
gaining admission into the kingdom.'' We have noticed 
that with a growing belief in a future life among the 
Jews, which belief synchronizes in its development 
with a gradual extinction of their terrestrial hopes, 
pessimistic tendencies become more pronounced. In- 
deed, the conception and raison d'etre of Heaven and 
future bliss is commonly defended by arguments based 
upon Pessimism. But Christianity gave value to this 
life by making it a kind of preparatory discipline for 
the life to come; the teachers of the Mishnah took the 
same view.^ Thus the burden of the preaching of 
John the Baptist and of Jesus was repentance, to be 
followed by the doing of righteousness here on earth. 

The notion of a future blessed existence, so far from 
destroying or impeding the growth of a pessimistic 

^Cf. Wellhausen : Israelit. u. Jiid. Gesch., BerL, 1901, p. 
386. 

^Cf. Matt. 6:19, 25; 19:23-30. 

^Cf. Mishnah Aboth 4:23: '' R. Jacob said, 'This world is 
like a vestibule before the world to come; prepare thyself 
in the vestibule, that thou mayest be admitted into the 
hall.' " 



214 View of the Woeld axd of Life 

sentiment is but an associate concept of a pessimistic 
estimate of man's present life and environment. Thus 
we read in John (16:33):* "These things have 1 
spoken to you^ that in me ye may have peace. In the 
world ye have tribulation, but be comforted. I have 
overcome the world.'" Christianity, indeed, does not 
concede to man the right to seek and to enjoy happi- 
ness here on earth,, rather it demands renunciation 
that the value of the undeserved gifts of grace and 
happiness hereafter may be enhanced. The individual 
Christian foregoes his pretended right, only because 
assured of complete satisfaction of his claim by a 
special covenant.^ 

Men renounced this world and centered their hopes 
on the world to come; for eternal spiritual bliss they 
cheerfully exchanged the brief and vain pleasures of 
earthly existence. They lived in the expectation of 
Christ's near return. This hope suppKed them with 
an extraordinarily strong motive for disregarding 
earthly things and the joys and sorrows of this life. 
Hamack correctly holds : * " How easy it was now to 
declare the earthly crown, political possessions, pres- 
tige and wealth, strenuous effort and struggle, to be one 
and all worthless . . . and in place of them to look to 
heaven.'' 

The intense and absorbing interest of the early 
Christians in the end of the age presupposes their 

*Cf. John 12:15; ibid., 15:18, 19; 16:33; I Cor. 11:32; 
Col. 2:20-23. 

^Cf. Ed. V. Hartmann: Phllos. of tlie Unconscious, London, 
1884, vol. Ill, p. 91. 

^What is Christianity? p. 47. 



IN THE N^EW Testament 215 

belief in its nearness/ What was the real cause for the 
intensity of that feeling that pervaded and permeated 
all classes and conditions of men in the century before 
and after Christ, that the end of the world was nigh ? 
For this belief was instrumental in calling into exist- 
ence Christianity and of having it accepted among the 
Pagans. The heathen-world was permeated with the 
spirit of world -weariness; all virility seemed to have 
gone out of their lives, their Jaded appetites no longer 
found pleasure in riotous living, and, hence, the mes- 
sage of an impending overthrow of existing conditions 
was hailed with joy/ 

The early Christians, in silent sufferance, endured 
persecutions to become more worthy of the glories to 
come. The Apostles go so far as to welcome sorrow 
and suffering, for had not Jesus, himself, said : " And 
ye shall be hated by all men for my name's sake; but 
he that endures to the end, he shall be saved '^ (Matt. 
10:22). Then, "they therefore departed from the 
Synedrion, rejoicing that they were considered worthy 
to suffer dishonor for the name '' (Acts 5 : 41). 

" The relations of Christianity," says Lecky,^ " to 
the sentiment of patriotism were from the first very 
unfortunate. While the Christians were, for obvious 
reasons, completely separated from the national spirit 
of Juda3a, they found themselves equally at variance 
with the lingering remnants of Eoman patriotism. 
Eome was to them the power of the Antichrist, and 

^Cf. Gunkel: Schopfung u. Chaos, pp. 357 ff, 375 ff. 

«Cf. 4th Ezra (90 C. E.) 4:44-50; also Gunkel's transl. in 
Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. II, pp. 331 ff; Volkmar: D. V. B. 
Ezra, Ziirich, 1858, p. 3. 

"Hist of European Morals, vol. II, p. 140. 



216 View or the Woeed axd of Lipe 

its overthrow the necessary prelude to the inilleiinial 
reign.'^ That the Primitive Church should have been 
hostile to the political-social life of the Pagan world is 
not surprising if we take into account the state of the 
manners and morals that obtained in it. The public 
games demoralized and brutalized the Koman mind." 
Popular sports consisted in inliicting pain on men and 
animals. Murder was a daily amusement of the patri- 
cian, and Seneca who expressed himself strongly on 
the subject was banished."^ After the assassination of 
Caligula (-ll C. E.) the patricians under Claudius in- 
augurated an era of license and lawlessness which was 
especially severe upon the common classes. Of Greek 
civilization Tertullian speaks ^' as **' Pompa diaboli.'' 
The ideals of refined Paganism never found a hospi- 
table reception on Judtean soil, and Christianity was 
reared upon that soil. Thus early Christianity, to 
wean man away from the effeminate civilization which 
permeated the very air. loosened him from earthly 
bonds and from the interests of society, by pointing to 
Heaven as the true and abiding home. This attitude 
toward life, carried to its logical conclusion, had to 
terminate in a denial of the will to live.^^ 

It was the aim of Christianity to bring about wholly 
new conditions, to create new environments for man. 
To do this it had first to engage in a desperate struggle 
with all that bound the Heaven-descended spirit in ser- 
vitude to the world of sense. The ascetic attitude of 
the Xew Testament toward the life of sense must, 

"Cf. Huidekoper: Judaism at Rome, N. Y., 1888, p. 71. 

^-^Cf. Seneca: Epist. 7:2-7. 

"Noeldechen: Gotha, p. 31. 

^^Cf. Pliimacher: D. Pess., Heidelberg, 1888, p. 48. 



IN THE New Testament 217 

therefore, be explained as a recoil from the degeneracy 
of the world. '' And if thy right hand worries thee, 
cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is better for thee 
that one of thy members should perish than that thy 
whole body go into Gehenna" (Matt. 5:30). In an- 
other place we read : " For if 3^e live after the flesh, ye 
must die, but if by the spirit ye mortify your doings, ye 
shall live " (Rom. 8: 13). " But I bruise my body and 
bring it into bondage, lest, while 1 preach to others, I 
myself should come to shame " (I Cor. 9 : 37). " Mor- 
tify, therefore, the members of your body, you who are 
on earth, fornication, uncleanliness, passion, evil de- 
sire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for wliicli 
things' sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of 
disobedience." " Overbeck is of the opinion " that the 
ascetic ideal preserved Christianity, and that ascetic 
practices among the early Christians became more 
severe when it became apparent that Christ did not 
return. 

^rhe world-denying Pessimism of Christianity is par- 
tially due to the supernaturalism it absorbed from 
the Jewish writings before the Christian era.'^ Accord- 
ing to the Jewish Apocalyptic literature, the kingdom 
of Heaven was not to grow out of the historical life of 
man, but was to break its continuity and to enter its 
existence by direct divine intervention. In this man- 
ner Jesus understood the new age — a vast social revo- 

^*Cf. Col. 3:5, 6; Matt. 26:29; Rom. 12:1; I Cor. 8:8, 9; 
9:27. 

^^ Cf . tjber die Christlichkeit unserer Heutigen Theologie, 
Lpzg., 1873, pp. 52 ff; Lipsius in Sybel's Ztschft. (28:253) 
takes the opposite view. 

^' A. u. P. lit. 



218 View of the Wokld and of Life 

lution in wliich rank should be leveled and all 
authority brought low; redemption af the oppressed, 
but chiefly a renovation of all things on earth by 
Divine Omnipotence. " But immediately after the 
tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, 
and the moon shall not give her light . . . and then 
shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven . . . 
and he shall send forth his angels with a great sound 
of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect 
from the four winds . . /^ ^' To this eschatological 
supernaturalism Jesus^ ethical supernaturalism/^ i. e. 
the ascetic requirement not only of the moral, but also 
an external renunciation of all that belongs to the 
present age, of goods and chattels, of family and 
friends, logically corresponded. " Then answered 
Peter and said unto him, Lo, we have left all and fol- 
lowed thee, what then shall we have ? " And Jesus 
said to them, " Yerily I say to 3^ou, that ye who have 
followed me, in the regenerated world when the son 
of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also 
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes 
of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, or breth- 
ren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or 
lands, for -mj name^s sake, shall receive a hundred-fold 
and shall inherit eternal life.^^ ^^ 

In another passage Jesus contrasts the evanescent 
pleasures of this life with the enduring joys of heaven: 
"For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and 
whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. 

^'Cf. Matt. 24:29-31; also Schmidt: Christentum u. Welt- 
verneinung, Basel, 1888, pp. 26 ff. 

^«Cf. Matt. 10:23; 16:28; 24:32-36; 26:29, 64. 
"Matt. 19:27-30. 



IN THE New Testament 219 

For what shall a man be benefited if he shall gain the 
whole world and forfeit his life, or what shall a man 
give in exchange for his lite." '° In Luke this thought 
is expressed by Jesus still more categorically : " If 
any man comes to me, and hates not his own father, 
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and 
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my 
disciple." "' Further on we read : " Whosoever he be 
of you that renounces not all that he has, he cannot be 
my disciple." ^^ In the light of these, and of similar 
sayings ascribed to Jesus, Kittel is justified in saying 
that revealed Christianity is ethical Idealism.^^ Chris- 
tianity gauges the value of material possessions by the 
aims of higher morality, in so far as they help to 
realize the ethical ideals. The summum bonum is not 
the pleasure that comes from material possessions^ 
nor even the joy that springs from filial affections, but 
that which springs from the consciousness of having 
done the good. This spirit characterizes the Sermon 
on the Mount. '' And if any man would go to law 
with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy 
cloak also" (Matt. 5:40). 

The laws of charity are carried to such an extreme 
that were they to be practised it would mean the anni- 
hilation of all private property. " Jesus said to him, 
if thou wouldst be perfect, go sell what thou possessest, 
and give it to the poor" (ibid. 19:21).'* This appeal 
to altruism is quick with sublime possibilities, but were 

^^ Matt. 16 : 25, 26. ^ Cf. Luke 14 : 26. '^ Cf. Luke 14 : 33. 

^^Sittliche Fragen, Stuttgart, 1885, p. 207; also Caird 
Hegel, Edinb., 1883, p. 217. 

^^Coinp. Mark 10:17-31; Luke 6:20; Acts 2:44-46; James 
2:5. 



220 View of the Woeld axd of Life 

we to live in that extreme sense for others the path of 
jorogress would be blocked. The highest virtues of 
Christianity — ^morality, poverty, continence, obedience 
— would, if nniversally carried ont to the letter, retard, 
nay make nigh impossible, the preservation and prog- 
ress of the human race. For the desire to possess 
something, exclusively, is one of the most potent 
motives underlying all advancement. 

The altruism of the Xew Testament is rooted, and 
this is important to notice, in the belief that true 
happiness awaits man beyond, and that the so-called 
happiness of this world is a counterfeit article. Sel- 
fisliness, so often necessary for one's own self-preserva- 
tion, becomes in the Xew Testament without discrimi- 
nation the source of sin and evil. He is perfect who 
curbs his desires and his passions to a point of extinc- 
tion.''' Self-denial is the sesame that opens wide the 
gates of the Kingdom of Heaven."' 

Jesus, thus, admonishes his disciples to be rather 
among the persecuted, than among the persecutors; 
bear rather injury and insult than inflict them upon 
others.'" Jesus adds the cause for having offered such 
advice: "Eejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great 
is your reward in heaven. '"^ 

"WTiatever rewards Christian experience may afford in 
this life, Jesus and Paul conceived that it is only in 
the life to come that the believer's genuine happiness 

^Cf. A. Menzie: "The Truth of the Christian Religion in 
the New World," Mch., 1895, pp. 57 ff. 

-® Cf. Schopenhauer, vol. II, p. 521. 

" Cf . Matt. 5 : 10, 11. 

=«Cf. Matt. 5:12a; 6:33; Luke 12:31, 32; John 16:20-24; 
comp. Rom. 8:18; I Cor. 15:58; Rev. 2:10-11. 



IX THE New Testamext 221 

and compensation will be revealed. This forms the 
kejTiote of the first Epistle of Peter (c. 100), in which 
the Christians are exhorted to pnrify themselves and 
be firm amidst trials and tribulations, for glorious will 
be their reward when life comes to a close. 

The mere fact that men's gaze is being continually 
directed toward a future as a better existence, leads to 
a depreciation of the present. And here we have the 
gateway, as it were, through which Asceticism and 
other pessimistic elements entered the thought-life 
of the Christian community. The attitude towards 
reality is always critical and polemical, since the New 
Testament measures reality by the ideal and fails to 
overlook the contrast between the two. This is clearly 
brought out in James: "Ye adulteresses, know ye 
not that the friendship of the world is enmity with 
God? Whosoever, therefore, would be a friend of the 
world makes himself an enemy of God." "^ 

Asceticism is not peculiar to Christianity alone.^" 
It is a principle that seems to be inherent in the reli- 
gious nature of man, otherwise it would be difficult to 
explain its prevalence among peoples widely separated. 
Wherever found, it serves as outlet for the mysticism 
which results from religious fervor. Asceticism may 
be due either to voluntary sufi^ering and penance to 
appease divine wrath, or to a desire to free the soul 
from the trammels of the perishable body and the 
tyranny of the world. That God can be influenced, in 
some way, by vows and by fasting, is a belief not wholly 

^ Cf . James 4:4; also Renan : English Conferences, Bos- 
ton, 1880, p. 27. 

^Cf. Zockler: Gesch. d. Askese, Frankfurt, 1863, pp. 24 ff. 



222 View of the Woeld axd oe Life 

unknowTi to the Old Testament. Schwally states ° that 
fasring among the Jews was a religions rite. Fasts 
were proclaimed at the time of some pnhlic calamity; 
also when an individnal had met with some sore be- 
reavement (Joel 1 : 14 : 2 : 15) ; also, when the Law of 
God had been transgressed, and a foreign invasion was 
threatened (Jer. 36:9). before a battle (I Sam. 14: 
21 : I Mace. 3 : 1. v) and when a near relative was 
ill (II Sam 12 : IG ). In aU these instances .the fast- 
ing was a means by which the favor of Gk)d was 
entreated. For, it was thought, that by abstaining 
from the enjoyment of certain thiQgs, the pity of the 
angered Deity was aroused, and the threatened ptmish- 
ment thns averted." Prof. Toy sees ascetic practice 
in Daniel (1:8, 12). "But Daniel made up his mind 
that he would not defile himself with the king's meat, 
nor with the wine he drank." *' Prove thy servants, 
I beseech thee, ten days: and let them give herbs to 
eat and water to drink. "" Prof. Toy ~ is mistaken if he 
detects a trace of ascetic practice here. DanieTs re- 
fusal was due to the fact that he regarded the food 
ceremonially unclean. For during the Maccabean 
period, the Jews in their religious fervor were most 
rigoro as in observing every detail of the ceremonial 
law. 

In Jesus' day fasting, per se, was looked upon as 
meritorious. Thtis we read in Tobit : "^ " Prayer is 

- D. Leben n. d. Tode. Giessen, 1S92, p. 26. 

"Cf. II Sam. 12:21; Jer. 14:11; Deut. 23:21ff (D) ; Zech. 
7:4-12; Lev. 16:29; 23:27 (P) ; Isa. 58:3-5; Nek. 1:4; Joel 
2:12-15; Ps. 35:13. 

'^ Jud. and Christianity, p. 255. 

"a C. 25 B. C. 



IN^ THE New Testament . 233 

good with fasting." '' In Luke (18: 11, 12) a Pharisee 
boasts of fasting twice each week. In Matthew (9 : 14) 
Jesus^ disciples scandalize the followers of the Baptist 
by not fasting.'^ 

As the number of pleasure-seeking imitators of 
Grreek customs and manners increased in Judaea the 
party of the Khasidim also increased. These strictly 
pious took the vow of the Nazarite/^ refraining from 
wine, and allowing the hair and the nails to grow. 
Graetz is of the opinion that the orgies of the Helle- 
nistic party led the Khasidim to fortify themselves by 
taking the Nazaritic voav." 

Pessimistic tendencies which but rarely come to the 
surface in the Old Testament play a prominent part in 
the New Testament. Paulsen opines that expressions 
of contempt for the world and its pleasures are much 
more frequent in the New Testament than the joyous 
notes of life. Even in the life of Jesus, he continues, 
the basic thought is not victory and the joy of life, 

^^Cf. 12:8b; cf. Lehr's transl. in Kautzsch's A. u. P., vol. 1; 
comp. Sirach 34:26. 

•'=>Comp. Matt. 6:16, 17; Isa. chpt. 58. 

^«Cf. Num. 6:2, 13, 18-20 (P) ; comp. Judges 13:5; 5:45; 
also Maybaum: D. Entwickelung d. Prophentums, Excursus 

I, Berl., 1883; Robertson Smith (The Rel. of the Semites, 
pp. 312 ff) in reference to the Nazarite ritual has the fol- 
lowing to say: "Wine and hair, both were sacred to the 
Solar Deity, the Deity that fructifies. In the worship of 
Baal, intoxication played an important part and no less the 
despoliation of the hair. In this wise did the Nazarite at 
first by their personal customs protest against the religious 
degradation or national desertion of Israel." Cf. also No- 
wack: Lhrbch. d. Hebr. Archaeologie, Freiburg, 1894, vol. 

II, pp. 133 ff. 

^' Gesch. d. Juden., I, p. 240 (Engl, ed., vol. I, p. 422. 



224: YiEW OF THE WOELD AXD OP LlEE 

but death and the suppression of all worldly desires 
and ambitions.^ Similarly Overbeck, who asserts: 

• Das Urchristentum is weltvemeinend. Weltflucht ist 
die Signatur des urspriLnglichen Christentums." " 

Hamack combats the view that stamps the Gospel 
a world-denying creed.*^' Three reasons he adduces to 
prove his position; the first is derived from the way in 
which Jesus came forward, and from his manner of 
life: the second is based upon the impression which 
he made upon his disciples and was reflected in their 
own lives: the third springs from what is contained 
in Jesus' fundamental message. Hamack makes Chris- 
tianity a religion of seK-denial. "Jesus asks self- 
denial and not asceticism.*' *" 

We must not lose sight of the fact that in Jesus, 
denial of self and denial of the world, are not the final 
goal, but means for gaining a nobler self, and through 
it, a better world. Like the Essenes, Jesus seemed to 
believe that ascetic practices hastened the coming of 
the Kingdom, Thus we may explaiQ some of the pessi- 
mistic views held by the Primitive Christian Church. 
Jesns flees from sensual pleasures and rejects their ex- 
citement and glitter, not because sinful per se, but 
because they attach man to the things of the earth 
and endanger his spiritual welfare: ^^'For what does 

-^Cf. Paulsen: System d. EtMk. Berl., 1S94, 3d ed.. vol. I. 
p. 82; also Dorner: System d. christl. Sittenlehre, Berl., 1S85, 
pp. 355 ff. 

^'Cf. Overbeck: Uber die Christlichkeit, etc., pp. 50 ff; also 
Schopenhauer: Griesbach ed., vol. I, p. 422, vol. II, chpt. 46. 

**D. Wesen d. Chiistentums, Lpzg., 1901, pp. 50 ff (Engl. 
ed., pp. 87 ff). 

- Cf. Hamack: D. W. d. Christentums, p. 55. 



IN THE New Testament 22o 

it profit man to gain the whole world and forfeit his 
soul." ^ 

Jesus does not stop here but he goes so far as to 
disapprove of what is generally regarded as a law of 
nature — the ties of kindred. He disregards all claims 
that parents have upon the love and respect of their 
children, and that children have upon their parents: 
"And another of the disciples said to Jesus, Lord, suf- 
fer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said 
to him, Follow me, and leave the dead to bury the 
dead." " 

"For I came to set man at variance against his 
father, and the daughter against her mother . . . 
He that loves father or mother more than me is not 
v/orthy of me, and he that loves son or daughter more 
than me is not worthy of me." "* But some one said to 
Jesus, " Behold, tliy mother and thy brothers stand with- 
out, seeking to speak to thee." But he answered and 
said ". . . who is my mother, and who are my broth- 
ers." "'^ " If anyone comes to me, and hates not his 
own father, and mother, and wife ... he cannot be 
my disciple." **' 

The claim is made, that Jesus deprecated filial love 
and love for kindred only then, when such love came 
in collision, as it were, with the duty and love man 

'-Cf. Mark 8:36; Rom. 14:21; also Duboc: Himdert Jalire 
Zeitgeist, Lpzg., 1889, p. 95; Gass: Optimismus u. Pess., Berl., 
1876, p. 22. 

^^Matt. 8:21, 22. 

•*Matt. 10:35-37 contrast with Mai. 4:6. 

«Cf. Matt. 12:47-48. 

^«Cf. Luke 14:26; comp. ibid., 8:19-21; 12:58; Mark 3:31^ 
35. 

15 



$26 TiETV OF THE WOELD AXD OF LiFE 

owes his Creator. If this be so, it is surprisingly 
strange, that this fact is not brought out by Jesus, for 
he must have known that much stress was laid upon 
filial love and respect among the Jews. In fact, he 
himself makes reference to it in Mark (T : 10-12) as 
one of the laws of Moses. Furthermore, there can be 
no conflict between filial love and the love one owes 
to his Maker. The Mosaic code punishes with death 
disobedience to parents,'' and the Fifth Commandment 
enjoins respect for parents as something praiseworthy 
and sure of reward,** which clearly proves that a con- 
flict between fllial love and love of God is impossible. 

Jesus condemns wealth and commends voluntar}' 
poverty. Wealth is not only worthless but endangers 
the spiritual welfare of its possessor and makes him 
unfit for the kingdom of God. "^'Be not anxious for 
your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; 
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on."' (Matt. 
6:25). "It is easier for a camel to go through a 
needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the 
Kingdom of God." '^ *•' But woe to you that are rich, 
for ye have received your consolation, woe unto you, 
ye that are full now, for ye shall hunger '" (Luke 6 : 24, 
25). " In the teachings of Jesus are two views of 
wealth which are apparently in conflict — the thought 
of wealth as a trust to be used, and the thought of 
wealth as a peril to be escaped; the physician's pre- 

- Cf. Deut. 21:18-21a (D). 

^'Cf. Exod. 20:12 (E); Deuc. 5:16 (D). 

^-'Cf. Mark 10:25; Matt. 19:24; Luke IS: 24 (vide Sura. 
Koran 7:38). 

=°Comp. Luke 12:15; Hebrews 13:5a; I Timothy 6:10a: 
" For the love of money is the root of all evils." 



I 



IN THE N'ew Testament 227 

scription for social health, and the surgeon^s remedy 
from social death. 

"No man can serve two masters ... Ye cannot serve 
God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24). 

The service of the kingdom of Heaven demands the 
whole of a man, his possessions as well as his mind and 
heart." 

With economical conditions and contemporary cir- 
cumstances Jesus did not interfere.^" But we notice 
that he had not the modern conception of the dignity of 
labor." He calls not only Simon and Andrew who 
were fishermen from their work (Mark 1 : 16-20), but 
also Levi, who sat at the toll-gate a,ttending to his duty 
(Mark 2: 13, 14). Jesus censures Martha who is busy 
with her household and praises Mary who neglects her 
home to listen to his teachings (Luke 10:38-42). In 
the parable of the three invited guests Jesus ex-« 
eludes all three from the kingdom because they were 
engaged in their daily pursuits.'* 

The belief that the world hates the Christian and 
that the Prince of the world is his bitterest enemy, 
led Jesus to despair of any improvement in existing 
conditions. He, therefore, advises his followers not to 
resist evil and to submit to wrong, the weak are there- 

^^ Cf . Peabody: "The Teachings of Jesus Concerning the 
Rich " in New World, June, 1900; also Jonte: Idees de Jesus 
sur la Pauverte et la Richesse, Paris, 1900; Caird: Hegel, 
p. 217; cf. O. Cone: Rich and Poor in N. T., N. Y., 1902. 

^^Cf. Harnack: What is Christianity? p. 105. 

^'Cf. Hartmann: D. rel. Bewusstsein, Berl., 1882, pp. 520 IT. 

«*Cf. Luke 14:15ff. 



228 View or the Woeld axd of Liee 

fore regarded as blessed and sure of entering the king- 
dom.^ 

The climax of ascetic tendency in the Xew Testa- 
ment is reached in the exaltation of celibacv."* The 
traditional Jewish view according to which marriage 
was at once a duty and a privilege/' and the ascetic 
view makitaiDed by the Essenes that it is evil and 
polluting, is avoided in the Xew Testament. Jesus 
affirms the possibility of a duty arising under certain 
circumstances to abstain from marriage/' but looks 
upon the marital state as a divine institution,^ Paul 
favored the ascetic and extreme view of marriage held 
by the Essenes. He admonishes, at all times, that 
men should crucify their bodies, for marriage is an 
inferior state.*' This view is but a natural and logical 
sequence of the view he holds concerning the human 
body which is the seat of sin and corruption: "Let 
not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye 
should obey the lust thereof. '^ (Eom. 6: 12).' "For 'if 
we have become united with the likeness of his death, 

^^Comp. I Cor. 6:7; I Peter 2:21-23; cf. Adams: "The 
Ethics of Tolscoi and Nietzsche." Int. J. of Ethics, Oct., 1900. 

^Cf. Schopenhauer: Griesbach ed.. vol. II, p. 726; also 
McCabe: "The Conversion of St. Au^stine." Int. J. of 
Ethics, vol. XII, pp. 450 ff. 

^'Cf. Gen. 1:28 (P) ; vide chpt. Talmud. 

^^Cf. Matt. 19:11, 12. 

^ Cf . Matt. 19 : 5 ; Paterson's article " Marriage " in Hast- 
ings' Diet, of the Bible, vol. Ill, p. 266b. 

'^Cf. Rom. 8:13, 3-8; 7:5-6, 18-25; I Cor. chpt. vii; Phil. 
3:21; Lecky: Hist, of European Morals, N. Y., 1890, vol. II, 
pp. 321 ff; Tertullian (175 C. E.) spealvs of marriage (De 
pudicitia, cap. XVI) as "genus mali inferioris, ex indul- 
gentia ortum." 



IN THE New Testament 229 

we shall be also with the likeness of his resurrection. 
Knowing this^ that our old man was crucified with 
(him) that the body of sin ought to be done away, 
that so we should no longer be in bondage of sin." '^ 
This doctrine receives its most graphic expression in 
Eomans ^^^ where Paul represents man under the Law 
as powerless to do the good he would, owing to his 
carnal nature. To seek deliverance from such a body 
of death and destruction is but natural. 

Paul's teaching concerning the sinfulness of the 
body is contrary to the Old Testament. Two passages 
are generally cited to show that the Old Testament 
is not opposed to Pauline teachings on this subject. 
The one is found in Job : " 

irivS i6 NotsD -imp |n;"^p 

" Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean one " 
(R. v.). 

The American Revised Version takes, correctly, iri^'^p 
as a desiderative particle (utinam) and translates: 
'' Oh, that a clean thing could come out of an unclean 
thing! not one can." The meaning of this is evident, 
evil clings to the body. But such a statement is con- 
trary to the whole view-point of the Old Testament. 
I agree with Hofi'mann"^ who does no violence what- 
soever to the Massoretic text but merely changes the 

«^Cf. Rom. 6:5, 6; Phil. 3:21; I Cor. 15:43, 51. 

«^a 7:9-24. «=^14:4. 

^Hiob., Kiel, 1891, p. 55; cf. Budde (Hdkt., Gott., 1896, p. 
70), who does not coincide with Hoffmann's reading, and 
translates, " Oh, that there would be a clean thing among 
the unclean ones; " Delitzsch (D. B. Hiob., Lpzg., 1902, p. 
45) agrees with Budde; comp. Duhm: D. B. Hiob., Freiburg 
i/B, 1897, p. 146. 



230 View of the Woeld axd of Life 

punctuatioii and substitutes a "i for a "! in inj^ Hoff- 
mann reads : ins i6 xr?t:p inc |ri* ^!0 " Oh, that Thou 
wouldst declare me innocent instead of guilty, without 
delay /^ This is in keeping with the prayer of Job to 
be found innocent, for his friends persist in accusing 
him of guilt because he suffers. 

The other passage is in Psalm (51 : 7) : 

^J3K ^Tipiom spn?-i '>F^?h^n pir|-in 

"Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my 
mother conceive me.'^ Wellhausen, in his explanatory^ 
notes to the translation of the Psalms in the Poly- 
chrome Bible, has the following to say: that the pas- 
sage does not refer to an individual but to the Israel- 
itish nation. " In sin did my mother conceive me '' 
means: that ever since the beginning of her history 
(cf . Ez. 16:3) iniquity against God is inseparable from 
Israel. Baethgen holds the same opinion and states 
that Theodoret (+ 457 C. E.) had understood the pas- 
sage in the same way.^ 

^Cf. Baethgen: Hdkt. Die Psalmen, Gott., 1892, p. 151, n. 



CHAPTEE XIII 

Six, Atoxemext, Satax, ix the New Testamext 

In the Xew Testament the doctrine of Original Sin, 
and a world dominated by Satan — both pessimistic ele^ 
ments — are advanced as a solution for existing evil. 
Adam has fallen and all have inherited the sin of their 
common progenitor/ This assumes that sin has caused 
a spiritual separation between God and man. But the 
life, sufferings, and death of Jesus became the means 
of reconciliation between God and man. 

" For since by man came death, by man came also the 
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also 
in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Cor. 15:21, 22). 

" For God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Him- 
self, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having 
committed unto us the world of reconciliation" (II Cor. 
5:19). 

" For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to 
God through the death of His son, much more, being recon- 
ciled, shall we be saved by his life; and not only so, but v^e 
also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through 
whom we have now received reconciliation" (Rom. 5:10, 
11). 

The germ of the chief doctrines of PauFs theolog;y 
we must seek in the Jewish literature of Alexandria. 
tJberweg appropriately speaks of that literature as 
" the last and nearest stepping stone to Christianity.'^ '' 

Philo (20 B. C.-54: C. E.) is the best exponent of 

^Cf. Schopenhauer: Griesbach ed., vol. II, p. 596. 
2 A Hist, of Philos., N. Y., 1896, vol. I, p. 270. 



232 Sin, Atonement, Satan, 

the school of Alexandria. Zeller gives a clear exposi- 
tion of Philonic thought." Philo starts from the Jew- 
ish belief in revelation and adheres strictly to it, but, 
enamored of Greek thought and culture, he seeks by 
means of allegorical explanation of the actual words 
of the Old Testament to harmonize the religion of the 
Jew with the speculations of the Greek and thereby 
creates a philosophical system.* Power and goodness 
are the most essential of the attributes of God, the 
union of these is the Logos.^ Of the two attributes, good- 
ness is the higher and the older — through it the world 
was called into being and is ruled over by God. But 
God, who is absolute good, could not have produced 
evil; whence then the evil that exists? Philo seeks 
therefore the source of all evil in a principle that is 
wholly independent of God. This is pre-existing and 
shapeless matter, called into existence by the Logos, 
an intermediary agent between God and the world.** 
God could not have created man, for He, the absolute 
good, cannot possibly have any relation with evil. 
Philo, therefore, explains " let us make man '' to 
mean — that God created the imperishable part of man, 

^ D. Philosophie d. Griechen, 3d. ed., 188J. pt. Ill, pp. 
338-418. 

*Cf. Freudenthal: Uber die pal. u. alexand. Schrittfor- 
schung. Progr. z. jlid. Theol. Seminar, Breslau, 1854, p. 32; 
Hamburger's Real Encycl., Ill, Suppl. VI, pp. 3 ff (Philos. u. 
Judenthum). 

^Hartmann: D. rel. Bewusstsein, p. 468; also Philo. De 
Cherub, II, 162; Jiilicher: Art. Logos in Cheyne's Encycl. 
Bibl., vol. Ill; Friedlander: Zur Bntstehung d. Christen- 
thums, Wien, 1894, pp. 8 ff. 

« Cf. John 1:3, 10; 1:33; 3:16,17, 35; 6:40, 44; 9:29; 16: 
27; 17:6. 



IX THE Xew Testa:mext 233 

the soul, while the Logos formed the perishable part, 
the body, for matter is the origin of evil, therefore in 
opposition to God/ The Logos is the instrument ol 
God — a qnasi-deity — in the creation of the Universe. 
It is God^s first-bom son. His vicegerent in the govern- 
ment of the world.* 

The first verse of the Gospel according to John de- 
scribes the Logos or " Word of God," and how the con- 
ception of Jesns as the Christ became associated with 
it. In John the Logos attains to a higher degree of 
personification. Christ is the Logos become flesh,^ 
from eternity he has been mth God, he created the 
world and God made Himself known to man through 
him : '" " In him were all things created that are in 
the heavens and upon the earth ... all things have 
been created through him ... he is before all 
things.'' '' ^Yllile in the Theosophy of Alexandria sin- 
fulness belongs to man because the body is per se evil, 
in the Xew Testament literature sin is imputed to 
man from the time of birth. [N'ot the body is evil or 
sinful, but man is a mutilation of what was once per- 
fect. Evil did not arise, as in the teachings of Plato 

^Cf. Siegfried: Philo., Gott, 1889, pp. 234 ff; also OMe: 
Beitr. z. Kirchengesch., Berl., 1888; Horowitz: Untersuchun- 
gen liber Philon's u. Platon's Lehre, Marburg, 1900; cf. 
Pratt: The Ethics of St. Augustine, Int. J. of Ethics, Jan., 
1903, p. 223. 

«Cf. Philo. De Cherubim D. 145, 162 (ed. Mangey, Erlan- 
gen, 1820). 

®Cf. Holtzmann: Einl. i. d. N. T., FreiWrg, 1892, p. 444. 

"Cf. Norton: A Transl. of the Gospels, Cambridge, 1890, 
vol. II. 

"Cf. Col. 1:15-17; I Peter 1:20. 



234 Six, Atoxemext, Satax, 

and Philo, through a lunitation of Divine Power; it is 
the result of man's doing: "For as in Adam all die, 
so also in Christ shall all be made alive "" (I Cor. 15 : 22). 
Man was created perfect, but he transgressed and is 
under the wrath of God. 

Man's nature being essentially corrupt he is incapa- 
ble of any good, and, therefore, the world is steeped 
in sin. ^ Jesus says to his disciples : "The world 
cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify con- 
cerning it, that its works are evil " (John 7 : 7).^^ But 
what is to become of mankind? Is oblivion to be its 
fate? Xo, for the old Adam — the human race — the 
Logos, the Christ, who has created it, must die. Since 
the Logos became flesh in Jesus, Jesus willingly sacri- 
fices himself for men by taking their sins upon himself, 
and thus saves them from the sin of Adam. The one 
condition to be freed from Original Sin is faith in the 
son of God, that he died as the Savior of mankind." 
Christ sacrificed the Adam that was in him, his godly 
nature remained to fill the world : " But God shows 
His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, 
Christ died for us. ^luch more then, being now justi- 
fied in his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of 
God through him. For if, while we were enemies, we 
were reconciled to God through the death of His son, 
much more being reconciled shall we be saved in his 
life, and not only so, but also glorying in God through 

^^ Cf. Pliimacher: D. Pessimismus, p. 50; also Joel: Blicke 
i. d. Religionsgescli., Excursus II. 

^' Cf. John 15:19; Rom. 8:19-23; 12:1, 2: Gal. 1:4. 

"Cf. Pfleiderer: " Jesus' Foreknowledge of His Suffering," 
etc., in New World, Sept., 1899; also Sdiopenhauer: Vol. I, 
p. 519; vol. V, 407. 



IN THE New Testament 235 

our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now 
received the reconciliation/^ " Touching upon the 
faith in the Savior as a necessary means for man's 
redemption, Jesus says : " l^o man comes to the 
Father but by me" (John 14: 6b). " I am the vine, 
ye are the branches" (ibid., 5a). "As the branch can- 
not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no 
more can ye, except ye abide in me" (ibid., 4). " 

The idea of a vicarious atonement is common, in 
some form, to all creeds. For in all men is present 
a consciousness of guilt, more or less intense, depend- 
ing upon the moral development of the individual. 
Atonement is the need of him who is imbued with 
guilt. For sin and punishment," guilt and atonement, 
have ever been regarded as inseparably linked together. 
Freedom from sin and guilt was sought in prayer and 
sacrifices. Among the Babylonians human gifts, long 
litanies and sacrifices, were deemed as insufiScient to 
appease the injured Deity, and a Mediator was intro- 
duced to interpose for the sinner.'^ Similarly, Chris- 
tianity denies, that man by his own efforts is able to 
free himself from the blighting curse Adam left him 
as a heritage. Christ crucified becomes the atonement 
for man's sin." This so radical departure from Old 
Testament ethics, that man is impotent to improve the 
condition of his spiritual life, must be viewed as a 
grave defect. We cannot too highly estimate the vast 

"Cf. Rom. 5:8-11; 3:25; 4:24, 25; Heb. 2:14, 15; 9:26-28. 
"Comp. Rom. 3:25-31; 4:16; 5:12; 9:30-32. 
" Cf. note 41, chpt. III. 

^^ Cf. Wahrmund: Babyloniertum, Judent, etc., Lpzg., 
1882, pp. 94 f. 
"Cf. Matt. 26:28, 29; Mark 10:45; comp. Jolm 11:25, 26. 



236 Six, ATOXE:M:EyT. Satax, 

amount of encouragement and inspiration that belong 
to such optimistic conception of man's moral relation 
to his Maker as expressed in Deuteronomy : "' •'And 
JHYH thy God ^11 make thee plenteous in all the 
-work of thy hand ... for JHYH will again rejoice 
over thee ... if thou shalt obey the voice of JHYH 
thy God ... if thou turn unto JHYH thy God with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul.'' 

But evil and sin were due to one other cause, besides 
that of the sin of Adam, i. e. to the power of Satan 
over man and over the world. ^Tiile in the Old Testa- 
ment he plays a role most insignificant, in the Xew 
Testament he has assumed the role of leadership. 
The attitude of the Synoptics and of John toward 
Satan is clear enough. In Matt. 4 : 8, 9 the devil takes 
Jesus unto an exceeding high mountain, and shows him 
all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 
and he (Satan) said unto Jesus, •'All these things will 
I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.'' 
Jesus and the Apostles and the people all believe in 
the power of the Evil One. Jesus tells his disciples 
to pray, "Bring us not unto temptation and deliver us 
from the Evil One'' (Matt. 6 :13). Jesus believed that 
Satan enters into swine (Matt 8: 32a). He deemed it 
his mission to destroy the work of the "devil (I Ep. 
John 3:8). Satan in the Xew Testament is too real 
a personality to be as Massie states, "• merely a s}Tnbol 
of things wicked and morally evil.'' ^ 

The origin of evil spirits in the Xew Testament is 
due to a rebellion of angels against God_, which rebel- 

«Cf. 30:9, 10 (Dt). 

=^Cf. art Demons in Cheyne's Encycl. Bibl., vol. I, p. 159. 



IN THE New Testament 237 

lion is assumed as being generally known." Thus in 
Luke we read : " I behold Satan fall as lightning from 
Heaven'^ (10:18). This is what Jesus says to the 
seventy when they return to him overjoyed at having 
discovered that even the devils were subject to them 
through his name.""^ In the heathen mythologies the 
rebellion against the gods took place where the 
gods dwelled; in the New Testament this was im- 
possible; it is therefore laid on earth, in Eden.''* This 
myth offered excellent opportunity for metaphysical 
speculation. Adam and Eve, the first rebels, suffered 
punishment.^'' But as in Paganism all had to share in 
the punishment that followed the rebellion in Heaven, 
so in Christianity all must suffer because the first par- 
ents had sinned. 

In Paganism man is a prisoner subject to the fate 
marked out for him by the jailer; in Christianity he is 
a sinner who by a special act of grace of God may be 
freed from his burden. Here the Redeemer, the son 
of God, steps in and saves man. Besides the vicarious 
atonement, which denies to man the power of self- 
regeneration, the mere fact, that Christianity recog- 
nizes the world as out of joint on account of the sin 

"Cf. Rev. 12:7-9; 20:1-3; cf. Beer's transl. in Kautzsch's 
A. u. P., vol. II, chpts VI-XI. 

^^ In the Second Targiim to the Bk. of Esther we are told 
that demons obeyed Solomon. Cf. Cassel: Zweites Targum 
z. B. E., Lpzg., 1885, chpts II, III; cf. Talm. B. Bathra 74b, 
where, according to R. Sol. b. Adereth, Gabriel is God's 
agent for dealing out punishment; also B. Mezia 86b, where 
Gabriel destroys Sodom; comp, Sanhedrin 21b, 9ob. 

"Cf. Schopenhauer: Vol. II, p. 683. 

=«Cf. Gen. 3:14fe (P). 



238 Sin, Atonement, Satan", 

of Adam and the power of the Evil One, stamps Chris- 
tianity as being pessimistic. Hartmann says : " The 
moral gnilt of the first human pair is said to have 
had the deterioration of nature for its natural con- 
sequence. Since, however, the connection between 
moral guilt and natural world-misery, between hu- 
man fall and deterioration, appeared all too bold, 
a superhuman creature must be introduced, a devil, 
who ruined and brought into disorder the fair creation 
of G-od." "" Satan, the adversary, heads a kingdom of 
evil as the antithesis to the Kingdom of Heaven."^ Here 
we discern a dualism as it exists in the religion of Per- 
sia. Jesus speaks of the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 
12 : 26), and Paul states that all those who believe not in 
Christ are under the empire and power of Satan 
(Acts 26:18).''" The greater the contrast becomes be- 
tween Christianity's Idealism and the Eealism of the 
world, the more influence is ascribed to Satan. For 
Satan and his satellites are responsible for all the wick- 
edness that exists among men. He sows the tares that 
choke the true seed's growth (Matt. 13 : 25), and goes so 
far as to tempt the son of God (Matt. 4:1). Jesus dele- 
gates to his faithful followers the power to deal with the 
devil. '^''And he assembled his twelve disciples, and 
gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them 
out, and to heal all manner of diseases and sickness.'''" 

2« Philos. of the Unconscious, London, 1884, vol. II, p. 272. 

-' Cf. Demonology of the N. T. in J. A. 0. S., Nov., 1858, 
p. 9; Legge: The Names of Demons in Proc. of Bibl. Archae- 
ology, 1901, vol. 23, pt. 2. 

^«Cf. Matt. 9:34; II Cor. 12:7. 

^'^Matt. 10:1; also Toy: "Relation bet. Magic and Rel.," 
J.A. O. S. 20, pp. 327-331; H. Spencer: The Principles of 



IX THE IN'ew Testament 239 

Jesus eviclently agreed, saj^s Conybeare, with the 
Exorcists, of his own and of other ages, in what was, 
after all, the essence and focus of their superstition, 
namely, in the ascription of physical disease and of 
bad weather to evil and unclean spirits/" Some of the 
Apostles, as Paul, not only expelled the devil but 
handed people over to him for the destruction of the 
flesh (I Cor. 5:4,5)/^ 

It was the Messiah's mission, as Jesus and the Apos- 
tles understood it, to rid the world of the enemies of 
God and man, to dethrone Satan, and to overcome 
disease and death. Harnack says, that in Palestine 
demoniacs must have been particularly numerous. 
Jesus saw in them the forces of evil and mischief, and 
by his marvellous power over the souls of those who 
trusted him he banished the disease. ^' There is one 
passage where Jesus seems to incline toward the Old 
Testament view that makes God the author alike of 
sickness and health. When asked who did sin, this 
man or his parents, that he was born blind, Jesus 
replied: ^^ Neither has this man sinned nor his par- 
Sociology, N. Y., 1901, vol. I, pp. 236 ff; Nowack: Lhrbch. d. 
Hebr. Archaeol., Freiburg, 1894, vol. II, pp. 272 ff; Stlibe: 
Jiid. Babyl. Zaubertexte, Halle, 1895. 

^°Cf. Conybeare: " Decay of Belief in the Devil " in Inter- 
national Monthly, Mch., 1902, p. 304; also Bixby: " Scientific 
and Christian View of Illness," New World, Sept., 1899, p. 
472; Stade: Akad. Reden, etc., Giessen, 1899, p. 226, note 1; 
H. Spencer: Principles of Sociology, N. Y,, 1901, vol. I, pp. 
226 ff; A. D. White: A Hist, of Warfare bet. Science and 
Theol., N. Y., 1896, vol. II, pp. 97-167; Sir Bennett: The Dis- 
eases of the Bible, London, 1896, p. 82. 

^^Cf. Josephus: Bell. Jud., VII, 6:3; Antiq., VIII, 2:5. 

*=^What is Christianity? p. 64. 



340 Six, AioxEiiEXT, Satax, 

ents, but that the works of God should be made mani- 
fest in him (John 9:2, 3). Jesus knew that he was 
the Messiah by the healing power of his words over 
those who were diseased in body and disturbed in 
mind,^ whom he regarded as in the power of Satan, 
and, also, by his power of raising the dead. '' For 
as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, 
even so the son also giveth life to whom he will '^ (John 
5:21).'' 

^ Cf. H. Spencer (Principles of Sociology, vol. Ill, p. 194) 
states, " that down to the present day epilepsy is regarded 
by many as due to possession by a devil, and Roman Catho- 
lics have a form of exorcism to be gone through by a priest 
to cure maladies thus supernaturally caused." 

^* Cf. Luke 7:12-15; Acts 10:40-43; 17-31. 



CHAPTER XIV 

CON-CLUSION 

That the Old Testament is, in the main, optimistic, 
and the New Testament pessimistic, has been estab- 
lished in the preceding chapters by the following facts. 
The Old Testament lays its emphasis upon life, life 
in the present. Life is fair and man has been placed 
by a wise and good Creator in a world that is good and 
beautiful. God created the world and rules it. Evil 
exists, and that it exists is not due to the nature of 
matter, nor to the transgression of the first parents, 
nor to a power antagonistic to God, but solely to the 
perverseness of the human will — for man is endowed 
with freedom to choose between the right and the 
wrong. Israel is God^s chosen people and may confi- 
dently look forward to God^s salvation. Eschatology 
holds but a subordinate place in the thought-world of 
the Old Testament. Reward and punishment are lim- 
ited to this life. The Messiah is a political deliverer, 
and resurrection is, substantially, the political revival 
of the Israelitish nation. 

Christianity accentuates the joys and the glories of a 
future life, and deprecates this life as a life of vain en- 
deavor. Death, not a part of the original plan of God, 
came into the world as punishment for the sin of 
Adam. Since then, man has been too impotent to 
raise himself from under the burden that has come to 
him as a heritage from his first ancestors. As a gift 
of grace God sent on earth His son, who lived, and 

16 



243 Conclusion 

suffered, and died for the sins of mankind. He who 
wishes to enter the kingdom of Heaven and become 
reconciled to his God, mnst believe in the blood of Gol- 
gotha and the sacrifice of Calvary as an atonement for 
the sin of Adam. Sin reigns in the mortal body and 
commands obedience to its kists. The body is the 
habitation of death and corruption. He who starves 
his natural desires is regarded as perfect. Family re- 
lations are disregarded; celibacy, and fasting, and flee- 
ing from the joys of life, are commendable acts. Pri- 
vate property is sinful; wrong and injustice should be 
endured rather than exposed and suppressed. The 
world is in the power of Satan who tempts man to sin, 
and is responsible for all the ills to which human flesh 
is heir. The rule of Satan will not cease until the 
coming of the Messiah who will wrest the rule from 
his hands. 



EXCUESUS I 
Eden 

The general concensus of opinion seems to point to 
Babylonia as the home of the Eden story. Thus Gold- 
ziher^ presents a strong argument in favor of the 
Babylonian origin. In the description of Eden (Gen. 
2 : 14) where the four rivers are mentioned, while the 
first three are geographically determined, the fourth 
is simply spoken of as ma — which implies that the 
river was so well known and its location a matter of 
such common knowledge, that there was no need to 
define its location — Babylon. Gunkel ^ opines that the 
Babylonian origin is probable. Toy says : ^ " The de- 
scription of Eden in Ez. 28:13; 31:16, 18; 36:35; 
Isa. 51 : 3, is similar and yet different from Gen. 2. 
The prophet had before him not the narrative in Gene- 
sis but a fuller Babylonian account, out of which that 
in Genesis also was probably drawn up. The Babylon- 
ian origin of the story has been adopted several years 
ago by Professors Lazarus * and Haupt,^ who assert 

^ D. Mythos. bei d. Hebraern, Lpzg., 1876, p. 387; also 
Zimmern: Bibl. u. Babyl. Urgesch., Lpzg., 1901, pp. 20 ff; 
Hommel: Die altisraelit. Uberlief., Miinchen, 1897, 314 ff. 

^'Schopfung u. Chaos, Gott., 1895, p. 146; also J. A. O. S. 
9:72 f. 

3 Grit, notes on Ez. in P. B. (Engl, transl.), p. 154; cf. 
Haupt in loc. 

*Die rel. polit. u. socialen Ideen d. Asiatischen Kultur- 
volker, Berl., 1872, p. 590. 

^J. A. O. S. 17:160, note. 



244 Edex 

that tlie exiles bronght it with them on their return 
to Palestine. Chevne holds the same view'' — ''from 
the Paradise story of the Jahvist to the Talmndic de- 
scription of the underworld the Jewish notions of tlie 
world beyond nature has a Babylonian and Assyrian 
tinge/'^ John Fiske' finds the origin of the Paradise 
myth in Persia, and Xork in India.^ 

The Palestinian origin of the narrative is ably de- 
fended by Dillniann/ Holzinger/" and Engel/^ Eyle also 
defends the Jewish origin of the Paradise account : ^ 
'' It is not probable/*" he says, " that Jews residing in 
Babylon would have accepted the geographical descrip- 
tion in (2 : 11-14) which contained such indefinite allu- 
sion to Assyria, or would have imported a mention of 
the fig-tree ( 3 : T ) . a tree which happens not to be a 
native of Babylonia. It is better to account for the 
absence of any allusion in the Earlier Prophets to the 
Paradise narrative, by the supposition that for a long 
time the account had not been cleared from the mytho- 
logical element, and could not, therefore, find admit- 
tance among the most sacred traditions of the religion 
of Israel.*^ 

Much discussion has been evoked by determining the 
place of the location of Paradise. The Septuagint ren- 
ders rh^xn in Gen. 2:11. " Em?A- /' Jerome adopts that 

" Origin of Psalter, p. 391. 

'Atlantic Monthly, April, 1899. 

^Braminen u. Rabbinen, Meissen, 1836, pp. 138 ff. 

^ Gen., Edinb., 1888, vol. I, p. 111. 

^» Gen., Freiburg, 1898, pp. 43 f. 

" D. Losung d. Paradiesfrage, Lpzg., 1895. 

" The early narrative of Gen., London, 1S92, pp. 37 ff. 



Eden 245 

reading " Hevilath." Kraus " is authority for the 
statement that the Samaritans do not read the final n 
and he reads nS^in^ in that case the Septuagint is plain. 
Even if we do not accept the proposed emendation the 
Greek form gives evidence that the Greeks had some 
notion as to the location of Paradise. Among the 
Church Fathers '^ Hevilat '^ signified the name of some 
country.'* In the Talmud n'p^n is the name for India. 

^"^ J. Q. R., vol. XI, p. 675. 

"Lagarde: Mittneil., Gott, vol IV, 1891. For situation of 
Eden see: Delitzsch: Wo lag das Paradies? Lpzg., 1881; 
Haupt in tJber Land u. Meer, No. 15, 1894-95: Winer Real W. 
B., vol. I, pp. 284 ff ; Herzog: Real Encycl., vol. XX, pp. 
332 ff; Schenkel's Bibellexicon, vol. II, pp. 42 ff; J. A. O. S. 
11:72 f; The Site of Paradise, in the Publ. of Gratz College, 
Phila., 1897, p. 40. For tree of life see: Toy's crit. notes 
on Ez. in P. B. (Engl, transl.), p. 182; Schrader: KATZ 
28th Jhrbch. prot. Theol., I, pp. 124 ff. 



EXCURSUS II 

ECCLESIASTES 

The dictum of the Eabbis " that the Torah can be 
explained in forty-nine ways '^ ' ( ^^rto D'D ) may espe- 
cially be applied to the Book of Ecclesiastes. Hart- 
mann looks upon it as " the vade mecum of Material- 
ism." '^ Heine calls it somewhere "a canticle of Scep- 
ticism." Renan makes of Ecclesiastes another Schop- 
enhauer.^ Delitzsch speaks of the book as " an elo- 
quent sermon on the fear of God." Cheyne, in a simi- 
lar strain, asserts that the book is built upon a true 
Israelitish foundation. * In the form in which the 
book has been handed down to us all these opinions 
have some justification. For one must bear in mind, 
as Prof. Haupt has pointed out/ that half of the book 
is made up of subsequent additions, the work of the 
theological editor of the book. These additions are 
either theological in character to make the views of 
the original more pleasing to the pious, or they are 

1 Talm. Nedarim 38a; Rosh-Hashanah 21b. 

2 " Koheleth, das Brevier des allermodernsten Materialis- 
mus und der aussersten Blasiertheit " (D. Lied vom Ewigen, 
St. Gallen, 1859, p. 12; cf also Schopenhauer: Griesbach ed., 
vol. II, chpts. 49, 50. 

^ " L'auteur nous apparait comme un Schopenhauer " 
(L'Ecclesiaste, Paris, 1882, p. 90); cf. also Siegfried: Predi- 
ger (Hdk. z. A. T.), Gott., 1898; Dillon: The Sceptics of the 
O. T., London, 1895, p. 113. 

* Job and Solomon, N. Y., 1889, p. 202. 

'^The Bk, of Bccl. (Oriental Studies), Boston, 1894, p. 244. 



248 ECCLESIASTES 

mere explanatory glosses. Thus the pessimistic senti- 
ment voiced in 8 : 14 : " There is vanity which is done 
on earth : to righteous men that happens which should 
befall wrongdoers^ and that betides criminals which 
should fall to the lot of the upright/^ is refuted by 
the editor in 8 : 12;, 13 : " Though a sinner do evil a 
hundred times, and prolong his days, yet surely I know 
that it shall be well with them that fear God, that 
fear before Him, but it shall not be well with the 
wicked/^ ' 

The explanatory gloss finds illustration in 3 : 21 : 

" Who knoweth the spirit of man, whether it goeth up- 
ward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth down- 
ward to the earth. The words ' to the earth ' are in ex- 
planation of ' downward ' " niSfDp ^ 

It has been pointed out by Kaufman ^ that the clos- 
ing sentences of the book were added later to save it? 
orthodox character. 

The traditional view ascribes the date of the book to 
the time of Solomon, because Solomon was made by 
tradition the representative of wisdom.® Luther (1483- 
1546) was the first who expressed doubts concerning 
the Solomonic authorship of Ecclesiastes. In his 
"Table-talk" he states that Koheleth seems to have 
been compiled in the manner of the Talmud from 

"(Comp. 4:5; 10:8, which are glosses on 4:6) (10:2b, gloss 
on 7:12) (9:13-16, 17; 10: 2, 3, 12, 13; 7:19; 10:19b; 7:11; 
8:1, these are all glosses on 2:15) (11:9b, gloss on 11:9a.) 

^3:9-15, glosses containing impressions of different men 
on the catalogue of times and seasons (3:1-8). 

« Was Koheleth a Sceptic? (Expositor, May, 1899, p. 389). 



ECCLESIASTES 249 

many different sources, perhaps from the library of 
Ptolemy Euergetes (170 B. C). Herzfeld favors the 
time immediately before Alexander the Great." Kne- 
nen and Dillon argue for the end of the third pre- 
Christian century. Ziinz, Hitzig and Xoldeke, 204-187 
B. C. Volk and Oettle, 146-117 B. C." Eenan/' Sieg- 
fried," Davidson/* are of the opinion that judging 
by the language of the book, which approaches the 
Mishnic idiom, it must have been written not before 
125 B. C. Prof. Haupt agrees with Graetz" and Ko- 
nig" that Ecclesiastes was written during the reign 
of Herod (ST-l: B. C), that it is the latest of the Old 
Testament books. Graetz regards it as a satire upon 
Herod and his time. He finds proof for the lateness of 
the book in the fact that an old Greek translation of 
it is not extant, as the Septuagint translation reminds 
us of Aquila." Most scholars place the date of Eccle- 
siastes after Alexander the Great, when the Greek 
manner and mode of life and thought had begun to 

^^ Gesch. d. V. Jisrael, Nordhausen, 1857, vol. II, p. 66. 

" Die poet. Hagiographen, Nordlingen, 1889, p. 108. 

'^ Hist, du Peuple d'Israel, Paris, 1894, vol. V, p. 157. 

" D. Prediger, Gott., 1898. 

^* Davidson in Cheyne's Encycl. Bibl., vol. I. p. 1161; also 
Peake in Hastings' Diet, of the B., vol. I; Barthauer: Opti- 
mismus u. Pess. in B. Koheleth, Halle, 1900. 

"Comm. z. Prediger, 1871; also Graetz: Gesch. d. Juden, 
vol. Ill, p. 237; also Graetz in Frankel's Mtsschf., 1869, p. 
507. 

" Einl. i. d. A. T., Bonn, 1893, p. 247, 

"Cf. Dillmann: ijber die griech. tlbersetzung d. Qoheleth. 
in Sitzungsber. d. Kgl. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss., Berl., 1892, 
pp. 3 ff ; also Erich Klosterman in Theol. Studien, 1885, pp. 
153 fC. 



250 ECCLESIASTES 

permeate the Eastern world. The influence of Greece 
upon Eastern Africa and Western Asia was felt most 
in Eg}^t under the Ptolemies, and in Syria nnaer the 
SelencidfE. Jeremiah refers ^* to the Jndsans who had 
left their native land, and Isaiah to their dwelling in 
Eg}'pt and Assyria." Alexandria and Antioch, both 
cities, centres of Greek civilization, became the abiding 
place of many Jews. Here, they were brought into 
contact with Greek civilization, indeed, the literature 
that sprang up at this time reflects the influence of 
that civilization. 

Especially the Sadducees, as Geiger has pointed out," 
were attracted by Greek culture. Hellenism was a bril- 
liant vice, which, unfortunately, many of the Jews 
were powerless to resist.'"" The priesthood itself set 
a bad example by aping heathenish custom. Thus, .the 
High-priest Joshua prefers Jason, the Greek, to the 
Hebrew name Joshua, and he was instrumental in the 
introduction of a g^minasium and public games into the 
city of Jerusalem.^ 

This Greek influence met with stubborn resistance 
from the pious, nn^Dn "^ who would not make any 

"43:1-7 (586 B. C). i'' 27:13 (334 B. C). 

^ Ursclirift., pp. 102, 202 f. 

^Graetz: Gesch. d. Juden, vol. Ill, pp. 298-342 (Engl, ed., 
vol. I, pp. 444 ff); Jost: Gesch. d. Judent, vol. I, pp. 99-116 
344-361; Herzfeld: Gesch. d. V. Jisrael, vol. II, pp. 436 ff 
Back: Gesch. d. jiid. Volkes, Lissa, 1878, pp. 43-53; Stem 
Gesch. d. Judent., Breslau, 1870, pp. 24-26; Wellhausen: Is- 
raelit. u. Jiid. Gesch., BerL, 1901, p. 242. 

^Cf. II Mace. 4:9-14. 

^a-Cf. Graetz: Hist, of the Jews, vol. I, pp. 435 ff. 






ECCLESIASTES 251 

concession whatever.'^ Thus we read : " Then came to 
hi.'ii (Mattathias) a company of the pious (Assidaeans), 
who were mighty men of Israel, even all such as were 
voluntarily devoted unto the Law." '* 

The number of those who inclined towards Hellen- 
ism must have been quite large if we measure the in- 
fluence they wielded during the Maccabean uprising 
and during the time of the Hasmonean dynasty.'^ 

The contact of Hebraism with Hellenism, though 
differing in their views of life and in the principles of 
morality/* was productive of much doubt. This may 
be gleaned from the efforts on the part of Jewish 
thinkers to blend the two systems of religion into one. 
Cheyne holds that the Proverbs of Agur (30 : 1-4) origi- 
nated about that time, when Jew and Greek met in 
the Academies and Libraries of Alexandria." 

The fact that the canonicity of Ecclesiastes caused 
much discussion among the Jewish authorities " favors 
the theory that foreign elements had crept into the 

^Cf. Schtirer: The Hist, of tlie Jewish People, 2d ed., I, 
vol. I, p. 198; first German ed., vol. I, p. 147; Graetz: Hist. 
of the Jews, vol. II, p. 19. 

'*l Mace. 2:42; eomp. 7:13. 

^'^ 135-37 B. C. 

^"'Cf. Arnold: Culture and Anarchy, N. Y., 1883, chpt. IV. 

" Jewish Rel. Life after the Exile, N. Y., 1898, pp. 173-181. 

=^«Cf. Wright: Eccl., London, 1888, Excursus II; Haupt in 
Oriental Studies, p. 245; Schechter: Aboth Rabhi Nathan, 
London, 1887, chpt. I; Mishnah Yadayim 3:5; Talm. Sab- 
bath 30b, where we read: R. Jehudah (257-320) said: "At 
first the Rabbis intended to exclude Koheleth, because some 
of its sentences contradicted one another, but why did they 
not do so, because it opens and closes with words of the 
Law." Cf. also Zunz: D. Gottesd. Vortr., 2d ed., p. 36, note b. 



252 ECCLESIASTES 

book. If we remember the moral and mteUectiial at- 
mosphere of that day. we caimot doubt that this for- 
eign inflnence was Greek.^ 

It was largely due to the efforts of Antiochus that 
Greek civilization obtained a foothold in Western Asia. 
He was a man of limited ideas and of violent temper. 
He conceived the Hellenization of all his subjects as 
the aim of his life. 

The Assidieans saw the danger that threatened the 
existence of Judaism, and did all in their power to 
hinder the removal of the ancient landmarks. When 
Jonathan laid hand upon the Hjgh-priesthood,** the 
Pharisees, the legitimate heirs of the Assidaeans. en- 
tered a strong protest and drew closer around the Law. 

There seems to be no doubt that the Pharisees, sus- 
picious of all foreign influence, and iucluding aU the 
teachers of the Law, were charged with the fixing of 
the Canon. The Sadducees were too worldly, and be^ 
sides there was enough transpiring to keep them po- 
litically interested, so that they could not have cared 
about the selection of the books that were to make 
up the Canon. The Pharisees, then, having charge of 
the Canon, we can readily see why Ecclesiastes should 
have been, at first, rejected. Prof. Haupt states:" 

=*C£. Schultze: D. jiid. ReligionspML in Gelzer's Prot. 
MonatsbL, vol. 24:4; also Clemens: D. Therapeuten. Progr. 
of G3Tnn. Fiideiicanum, Konigsberg, 1869; ITberweg: Hist, 
of Philos., X. Y.. 1S96. vol. I, pp. 222 fC; Freudenthal: Hel- 
lenistische Studien, Breslau, 1875-78; Z^ller: D. Philos. d. 
Griechen, Lpzg., 1S69-79, vol. Ill, pp. 594 ff. 

»152 B. C. 

"The Bk. of EccL, p. 243: cf. also Hitzig: D. Pred. Sol. 
(Nowack), pp. 205 ff; Midrash Rabboih to Lev., chpt. 28; 
EccL L 



ECCLESIASTES 253 

" tlie book was in the first century B. C. still an Anti- 
legomenon until the Synod of Jabneh (90 C. E.) de- 
cided in favor of the canonization of the book.'^ This 
explains the many additions to the original text which 
were to neutralize the grossly material views of life 
found therein.^'' 

Furthermore, the Pharisees were champions of " the 
larger hope/' While in Ecclesiastes the horizon is 
ho uncled l^y this life only — the Pharisees, as has been 
shown in the preceding chapters, held the belief in a 
future life. Therefore, sentiments as expressed by Ec- 
clesiastes concerning life must have been obnoxious to 
them : " Who can tell whether the spirit of the sons 
of men ascends upwards, and the spirit of the beasts 
descends downwards? Certainly the same fate hap- 
pens to man and beast, there is no superiority of man 
over the beast. All is transitoriness." " "And I per- 
ceived that other good there is none, save only that 
man should enjoy himself in his work: for that is his 
portion. For who can show him what shall become 
after him after his death.'^ '* 

In the Targum Koheleth, a paraphrase of the He- 
brew text, the negative teaching of the book is coun- 
teracted by copious additions that accentuate future 
life and retribution, which ideas are lacking in the 
original Hebrew text. 

In the pessimistic attitude of Ecclesiastes we may 
trace the influence of Greek thought. Though this 

32 Cf. Luzzatto nom l^V (Vienna, 1860, pp. 17-25); also 
Krochmal pTH ^DUJ mirD (Lemberg, 1863, XI, 8); Geiger's 
ZtscM., 1862, p. 154; Jost: Gesch. d. Judent., vol. I, p. 42, 
note 2. 3^3:21. 3*3:22. 



254 ECCLESIASTES 

influence is denied by many, it exists nevertheless/*^ 
and leads ns to fix the date about 40 B. C. during the 
reign of Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus. The Mac- 
cabean princes failed to establish peace and prosper- 
ity/^ Especially, during the reign of Antigonus, cor- 
ruption, in high and low places, was openly practiced,'"*' 
and all hope for political independence seemed nigh 
vanished. 

The author of the book was, evidently, a man of the 
world, one who had been in touch with all classes and 
conditions of men, but who, impregnated with the 
ideals of Greece, had ceased to stand upon Jewish 
ground in the belief in a Divine Providence. He saw 
nothing but gloom in the social and political chaos ol 

34aGregorius Barhebraeus (c. 1250 C. B.) was the first to 
assert in his Chronicle, written in Arabic, that Solomon 
shows in Ecclesiastes the influence of the Pythagorean 
Empedokles (492-432 B. C), and that there is no immor- 
tality in Ecclesiastes. Canon Zirkel in his " Untersuchun- 
gen iiber den Prediger," publ. 1792, speaks, too, of Greek 
influence. Similarly, Siegfried, Pfleiderer, Tyler (Ecclesi- 
astes, London, 1899), Plumptre, Graetz, Wellhausen (Is- 
raelit. u. Jlid. Gesch., Berl., 1901, p. 241, n. 4), Jastrow (The 
Study of Religions, London, 1901, p. 233, n) ; Fritzsche 
(Protest. Kirchenzeitung, 1894, No. 14) advances the theory 
that Ecclesiastes is made up of aphorisms gathered by a 
Hellenistic Jew. Zockler and Delitzsch see traces of Ori- 
ental thought in Ecclesiastes. Menzel (D. griechische ein- 
fluss auf Prediger, Halle, 1889) and Prof. Johnston (Hop- 
kins U. C, 1891, June, p. 118) deny any Greek influence. Cf. 
also Thumb: D griechische Sprache im Zeitalter d. Hellen- 
ismus, Strassburg, 1901. 

''Emmaus, 165 B. C; cf. I Mace. 4:22; Bethzura, 164 
B. C; cf. I Mace. 4:28, 35. 

3«Cf. Graetz: Hist, of the Jews, vol. II, pp. 84 ff. 



ECCLESIASTES 255 

his day, and despaired of the future. Chance for im- 
provement there was none, for everything is ceaselessly 
going on the same rounds; there is nothing new under 
the sun ; nothing endures ; nothing wholly satisfies. 



1 



4 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 

I, Adolf Guttmacher, was born January 7, 1861, in 
Germany. Up to my eleventh year I attended the pub- 
lic school of my native to\\Ti, then I moved to Berlin, 
where I attended school for ten years. I studied in 
Berlin at the Judische-Gemeinde Knabenschule and at 
the Teachers' Seminary, preparing for entrance, at the 
same time, for the Berlin Hochschule fiir die Wissen- 
schaft des Judenthums. In 1882 I came to America. 
For a brief period I taught modern languages at the 
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio; then I entered the He- 
brew Union College and the Cincinnati University, 
graduating from both institutions in 1889. I received 
a call from Fort Wayne, Ind., to occupy there the pulpit 
of the Jewish congregation. I accepted the call, remain- 
ing two years. During that time I was professor of 
French and German at the Taylor College, located at 
Fort Wayne, Ind. In 1891 I accepted a call from the 
Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, which pulpit I have 
occupied ever since. During the year 1893-94 I attended 
the lectures in the historical-political department at the 
Johns Hopkins University. In the autumn of 1894 I 
entered as a regular graduate student the Oriental Semi- 
nary to devote myself, under the direction of Professors 
Haupt and Johnston, to the study of Semitic Languages. 
I also attended a course of philosophy under Prof. E. 
H. Griffin. 



Optimism and Pessimism 

in the 

Old and New Testaments 



A DISSERTATION 

Presented to the Board of University Studies of the 

Johns Hopkins University for the Degree 

of Doctor of Philosophy, 1900 



by 

Adolf Guttmacher 



BALTIMORE, MD. 
1903 



I 



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